Here is a sobering article discussing Britain's planned next steps in implementing the techno-fascist society.
I would like to note that there are a few monkey wrenches in the plans of the would-be Big Brothers. First, while technology enables data-mining and other voyeuristic activities - to which the perverts in government bureaucracy are perenially addicted - technology also enables far more interaction than is possible without it. Since there are far more data-generators than data-miners, the job is still disproportionately difficult.
Second, computers are not AI - they only automate things. Spying requires more than automated data-mining, it requires intelligent filtering. While government perverts can use computer software to amplify the amount and detail of voyeurism they engage in, so long as they are dealing with 1000:1 or greater ratio of human data generators to human data miners, their task will always be just as hard.
Last, the more government spies on us, the more incentive we have to use cheap, widely-available, military-grade cryptography software and integrate it into every part of our infrastructure. So, incidentally, the government may simply be helping us perform the much-needed upgrade of our data infrastructure to ubiquitous cryptography. The nice thing about cryptography and steganography, is that they have the effect of making information freedom all-or-nothing. Either the government violently prohibits us from using computers and networks completely (and thereby prevents us from using cryptography), or it does not, in which case, it cannot prevent us from transmitting whatever data, information or communication we choose. The much-vaunted, but very leaky, Great Firewall of China is the perfect example of how the government is ultimately powerless to really stop the flow of data once people are free to use the technology at all.
My greatest hope for freedom is the unfathomable incompetence of government. Good luck spying on us, morons.
I would like to note that there are a few monkey wrenches in the plans of the would-be Big Brothers. First, while technology enables data-mining and other voyeuristic activities - to which the perverts in government bureaucracy are perenially addicted - technology also enables far more interaction than is possible without it. Since there are far more data-generators than data-miners, the job is still disproportionately difficult.
Second, computers are not AI - they only automate things. Spying requires more than automated data-mining, it requires intelligent filtering. While government perverts can use computer software to amplify the amount and detail of voyeurism they engage in, so long as they are dealing with 1000:1 or greater ratio of human data generators to human data miners, their task will always be just as hard.
Last, the more government spies on us, the more incentive we have to use cheap, widely-available, military-grade cryptography software and integrate it into every part of our infrastructure. So, incidentally, the government may simply be helping us perform the much-needed upgrade of our data infrastructure to ubiquitous cryptography. The nice thing about cryptography and steganography, is that they have the effect of making information freedom all-or-nothing. Either the government violently prohibits us from using computers and networks completely (and thereby prevents us from using cryptography), or it does not, in which case, it cannot prevent us from transmitting whatever data, information or communication we choose. The much-vaunted, but very leaky, Great Firewall of China is the perfect example of how the government is ultimately powerless to really stop the flow of data once people are free to use the technology at all.
My greatest hope for freedom is the unfathomable incompetence of government. Good luck spying on us, morons.
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