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Dear HN Monkeys, You're cracking me up. You can not be pro-technology and pro-privacy at the same time - these things are mutually exclusive almost by definiti

Dear HN Monkeys, You're cracking me up. You can not be pro-technology and pro-privacy at the same time - these things are mutually exclusive almost by definition. Pick a side already and stop whining. (Aaand here's a tip: the winning side in this will always be technology. Yes, that very same technology that you help create on a daily basis. )

codeisawesome 10y ago
I want to try raising a HN admin flag on you - but your voice needs to be heard, you are obviously writing what you believe is right. There are likely many others just like yourself. First, the obvious; Public Key Cryptography, HTTPs, Digital Encryption Algorithms and their implementations are all TECHNOLOGY and there is a non-trivial number of us HN Monkeys involved in building them as well (I wish I was one, not just yet). Next. I get your concern. I really do, and I share it. The problem you're referring to is often incorrectly attributed to the proliferation of technology alone - but I think it's a problem of the free market. It's a problem of the commoditisation of Human Attention and Human Data in the quest for ever higher, ever better profits. This is not a new problem, rapacious and horrible entities have been born out of this. My blood boils when I see ads for fertiliser from DuPont on Indian TV. Yes, they're now advertising again as if Bhopal never happened. But hey, profits. So your anger is misdirected. Please use it as fuel instead to try and build an alternate system. To try and think of ways in which the innate, inescapable human need for increasing individual rewards (today these rewards are expressed in the currencies of Money and Political Power), without compromising the needs of - well - everyone else. We need more thinkers and thinking. It's what humans do BEST.
ionised 10y ago
> You're cracking me up. You can not be pro-technology and pro-privacy at the same time - these things are mutually exclusive almost by definition. Hoooooooorse shit.

codeisawesome 10y ago

I want to try raising a HN admin flag on you - but your voice needs to be heard, you are obviously writing what you believe is right. There are likely many others just like yourself. First, the obvious; Public Key Cryptography, HTTPs, Digital Encryption Algorithms and their implementations are all TECHNOLOGY and there is a non-trivial number of us HN Monkeys involved in building them as well (I wish I was one, not just yet). Next. I get your concern. I really do, and I share it. The problem you're referring to is often incorrectly attributed to the proliferation of technology alone - but I think it's a problem of the free market. It's a problem of the commoditisation of Human Attention and Human Data in the quest for ever higher, ever better profits. This is not a new problem, rapacious and horrible entities have been born out of this. My blood boils when I see ads for fertiliser from DuPont on Indian TV. Yes, they're now advertising again as if Bhopal never happened. But hey, profits. So your anger is misdirected. Please use it as fuel instead to try and build an alternate system. To try and think of ways in which the innate, inescapable human need for increasing individual rewards (today these rewards are expressed in the currencies of Money and Political Power), without compromising the needs of - well - everyone else. We need more thinkers and thinking. It's what humans do BEST.

ionised 10y ago

> You're cracking me up. You can not be pro-technology and pro-privacy at the same time - these things are mutually exclusive almost by definition. Hoooooooorse shit.