tl;dr
Given the continued trends of proprietary software and surveillance
technologies, what is strategically the best course of action for those of us
who care -- not only from an individual perspective, but also in terms of the
wider harmful effects of these technologies to the fabric and structure of
our societies, from our relationships with nuclear family to extended family,
friends, and our professional lives? Thoughts?
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The following is an attempt to put into words some questions and thoughts
I've been mulling over for a while. I would be happy to hear the opinions of
others here about them. As invasive proprietary technology makes further and
further incursions into our lives in ways that give us less and less
possibility to defend ourselves against, what are strategically the most
meaningful positions to take? As has been mentioned in the past by Mr.
Moglen, the surveillance society we live under, represents an ecological
problem, so individual actions are not enough to change course (not unrelated
nor so different from the unabashed corporate led destruction of the
environment and depletion of resources for short-term narrow-minded
objectives, that we are currently living through).
One good example of what I mean can be illustrated by my relationship with
google. I have, for a long time, done my utmost to keep google out of my life
and have done so successfully on all fronts except for Youtube, and whatever
Analytics or other such surveillance are used on some of the websites I visit
and where turning JS off renders the site unusable. Lately, I have noticed
more and more of a trend in that wherever I visit there are more and more
ubiquitous surveillance devices. There is one such product from google that
looks like a cylinder speaker and records everything around it (not to
mention devices from other corporations such as "smart" TV's, amazon's
whatever it's called, etc.) . Now I see google has come up with a camera that
people can mount anywhere and which will be on at all times examine an area
using artificial intelligence to determine when to record photos and videos
of "cute" moments. It is not difficult to see where this trend is headed and
how in spite of all efforts to resist these abusive corporations, they will
make every effort to encroach further and further into our private lives and
they will succeed, largely with fanfares and praise from those they are
abusing.
When will it reach the point where those of us opposed to this surveillance
capitalism model will be completely ostracized and marginalized from society?
When will the question become "google or me" and our loved ones choose google
because they perceive can no longer (nor want to) live without it? These
mega-corporations have managed to endear themselves into the minds of many
adults in our societies in a way that I find truly alarming. Many people who
are technologically completely ignorant but who have such strong feelings and
views about these for profit corporations and technologies they do not
understand and which mistreat and abuse them. With children it's even worse.
I have met young kids who tell me they like to chat with google because she
knows everything and she is so nice and funny. What will become of these kids
and their relationships with these corporations when they become adults? How
will they perceive these corporations and the ubiquitous control and
surveillance? How will they interact with them and how will they in turn
teach their children?
What to do in light of these continuing trends and the mostly complete lack
of caring that people show about these issues -- even after Snowden's
revelations, which I actually feel largely created a sense of "we're already
doomed by surveillance so lets just embrace it all and cease the moment" in
the mainstream consciousness? I realize there are many who are alarmed and
even many who mount efforts to resist and counteract and that thanks to these
efforts there is at least still a choice in the matter for some technologies
and for those of us who care, but to what extent will that become less
meaningful as we come to not even physically control the devices that are
used to control and surveil us? I can already envisage situations where the
"owners" of such devices (many times family and friends) will be offended by
the request to turn them off when we're around, feeling that these requests
are attempts to control how *they* choose live their lives and the
technologies they choose in their own homes/environments. And, when that time
comes, what should those of us who care do about it and what will those of us
we care about choose when faced with such a choice?
On that subject one of the big questions is what does it mean to be a radical
or a conservative? Are those who embrace the latest technologies blindly and
allow giant undemocratic institutions and corporations to drastically alter
social structures actually the radicals, and those who question the
fundamental assumptions and are skeptical of embracing every new gadget, toy
and technology as inherently positive actually the conservatives. Sometimes I
feel as though we're living a mass induced psychotic break from reality and
the few of us who try to question it are immediately labeled as intolerant
luddites and paranoid conspiracy theorists.
For a long time I have questioned the strategic effect of those who obviously
care and are actively trying to resist/mitigate/change the situation but who
use platforms such as google or facebook or twitter, etc. to do so. For a
long time I have wondered how useful this would be strategically and what
other options are available besides this. Now as I see the current trend of
these corporations becoming the "curators of reality" it becomes clear that
the perceived short-term tactical gains may not have necessarily justified
the long-term strategic loses of coming to depend on these corporations. I
know that in the case of free software RMS has been very consistent in the
long-term and as a result, the GNU and free software projects stand strong as
a last stronghold for those of us who reject the control exercised through
proprietary software. However, how useful will that continue to be in light
of new evolving technologies and what -- if any -- thinking needs to be made
moving forward.
- [Trisquel-users] Thoughts about the impact and future di... fbits
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