Borgy Borgy Borg | on becoming a cyborg
Borgy Borgy Borg
on becoming a cyborg - on becoming a cyborg
Politics is a battle between sense and nonsense. The majority of any given population inevitably endorses nonsense–because it feels good? Because in large groups human beings lose a hundred IQ points? Because of a herd mentality? Who knows–and the end result is the crushing defeat of sanity by insanity. The human race, armed with increasingly powerful weapons, and afflicted by this herd mentality, looks set&&
A review of Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: the Many Faces of Anonymous by Gabriella Coleman Without further innovation, the human race is doomed. Two centuries of exponentially-increasing technological development put the future of our species in doubt. But we cannot willingly go back and forget the innovations we already possess, which means the only solution is to continue innovating, to continue experimenting, in the hopes&&
In a recent blog post over on the CDT blog, Jake Laperruque discusses police body cameras, and how they could be used to prevent civil liberties abuses by the police. His focus seems to be: What policy / law / rule set should govern the use of police body cameras? This is, IMHO, the wrong question to ask. When law and technology collide, law always&&
The Internet has limits. Technologists know this. Journalists, public policy and legal people often do not. The Internet is constrained by the laws of mathematics, of physics, and of human nature. Ignorance of these laws can and will cause us grief if we’re not careful. This blog post is meant as a primer for those working in public policy, and is specifically meant to counter&&
The Internet is under occupation by an invading army. The NSA/GCHQ/etc have put the online world under martial law. Those of us who know and care about this development have spent a great deal of time improving our digital self-defense, and developing new tools to help others defend themselves too. The problem is, if the NSA wants *you*, there is no digital self-defense good enough&&
“Journalism is publishing something someone does not want published.” –George Orwell Without journalism, democracy could not exist. The Fourth Estate’s ability to check abuses by those in power is the last line of defense between us and tyranny. But this ability is under threat, and may soon — barring some innovative breakthrough in secure computing — disappear entirely. The printing press created journalism. We take&&
Fahrenheit 451, as we all know, is the temperature at which paper burns. The temperature at which books burn, the temperature required for the Collective Unconscious to begin destroying its unpleasant memories and unbearable thoughts. Fahrenheit 72 is room temperature. The temperature at which ebooks get deleted. The extreme centralization of knowledge we are experiencing, and the ease with which that knowledge can be damaged,&&
For the past five hundred odd years, the printing press has the been the most efficient means of mass communication ever devised. The American Revolution was made possible by two technologies: the press, and the personal firearm. It is no surprise that these two technologies are enshrined in the First and Second Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. But the printing press is obsolete, replaced by&&
We Steal Innovation On September 5, 2014, a few weeks ago, The Intercept published a classified document provided by Edward Snowden. The document was the NSA’s 2009 Quadrennial Intelligence Community Review. This document anticipated potential threats to American power over the next 10-15 years. I quote, “One of the principal threats raised in the report is a scenario “in which the United States’ technological&&
Yesterday I got an email from a fan. She said she read one of my books and enjoyed it, and she decided to write an Amazon review. (I include a short note at the end of all of my books asking readers to write a review.) When she submitted the review, however, she got an email from Amazon saying her review had been rejected. So&&
Information Technology has redistributed power from the people to the government. IT makes mass surveillance cheap and easy. And the purpose of spying is not titillation or voyeurism (although those are job perks the spies enjoy), but actionable intelligence. Mass surveillance exists so the government can purge unwanted elements from society. That is, at rock bottom, its sole purpose for existing. And the lack of&&
The enduring popularity of espionage as a form of employment for otherwise intelligent individuals–an employment that inevitably destroys their morals, bloodies their hands, and turns them into human vermin little better than the dog turd you and I scrape off our shoes–is made possible in large part by the mystique and glamour of the profession, a glamour that could not be further from the truth.&&}