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>They could just as easily have said "anything that makes it more difficult for the NSA to track my interests and whereabouts is bonus points" and I think a maj

>They could just as easily have said "anything that makes it more difficult for the NSA to track my interests and whereabouts is bonus points" and I think a majority of people on here would probably agree with that statement. Perhaps I have a different view of the NSA than you do, but I would have had the same response to that. Like the police, they exist to protect us, and if they're doing something irresponsible/immoral/illegal, they should be made accountable and corrected, rather than just made less efficient at it. Information is a powerful tool, and can be utilized to protect us in powerful ways. IMO the problem is not collecting the information, but how it's used. I'd much rather see a super-efficient all-knowing and well-intended protector than an inefficient bumbling mess.

syshum 10y ago
>>I'd much rather see a super-efficient all-knowing and well-intended protector That is a recipe for a Tyrannical Police state.
- drusepth 10y ago
  Fortunately, it's the standard recipe for many utopian scenarios, also. Given the choice between the two, I like to think people are generally good and that a utopian world, if possible, is more likely.
  - syshum 10y ago
    I think we have very very very different views of what a utopia would be. In no way could a society where I have no privacy be a utopia. Not to me. I value my Freedom and Privacy above all else What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! You clearly are not a person who studies history. Most of our progress as a nation is a direct result of people breaking the law in various ways. Would there have been a Civil Rights movement at all if an all knowing protector would have stopped Rosa Parks from even getting on the that bus? Or the Woman's Rights movement if an all knowing government was able to eliminate the movement before it got an mass attention. You want to see a complete conformist society with no ability for any person to exist with out the "approval" of that society. I shutter to think would have happen to LGBT persons if your vision of a "utopia" existed Today we are locking up people based on what plants they choose to grow, and are raiding home because they happen to throw some loose leaf tea in the garbage after shopping at a gardening store. How will giving these incompetent morons more power going to make things better, going create a utopia. That is unless North Korea is your view of a "utopia", where the politically connected, the politically correct, and the conformists are rewarded by government and anyone that speaks out, or has an opposing view is simply disappeared.
  - pc86 10y ago
    > I like to think people are generally good Any study of history will almost immediately dispel you of this view.
    - hga 10y ago
      As my favorite history teacher said, to great amusement of the class, "Original Sin is an empirical observation".
Natanael_L 10y ago
"Drowning in data" http://www.zdnet.com/article/nsa-whistleblowers-security-thinthread-largest-failure-in-nsa-history/ http://www.zdnet.com/article/nsa-whistleblowers-security-thi... More data does not make for greater accuracy or efficiency. More intelligence (human effort) does.
pc86 10y ago
> the problem is not collecting the information, but how it's used You can (barely) control how the current administration uses the information it has. You have no way of controlling how the administration will use that information in 10 years.

syshum 10y ago

>>I'd much rather see a super-efficient all-knowing and well-intended protector That is a recipe for a Tyrannical Police state.

drusepth 10y ago
Fortunately, it's the standard recipe for many utopian scenarios, also. Given the choice between the two, I like to think people are generally good and that a utopian world, if possible, is more likely.
- syshum 10y ago
  I think we have very very very different views of what a utopia would be. In no way could a society where I have no privacy be a utopia. Not to me. I value my Freedom and Privacy above all else What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! You clearly are not a person who studies history. Most of our progress as a nation is a direct result of people breaking the law in various ways. Would there have been a Civil Rights movement at all if an all knowing protector would have stopped Rosa Parks from even getting on the that bus? Or the Woman's Rights movement if an all knowing government was able to eliminate the movement before it got an mass attention. You want to see a complete conformist society with no ability for any person to exist with out the "approval" of that society. I shutter to think would have happen to LGBT persons if your vision of a "utopia" existed Today we are locking up people based on what plants they choose to grow, and are raiding home because they happen to throw some loose leaf tea in the garbage after shopping at a gardening store. How will giving these incompetent morons more power going to make things better, going create a utopia. That is unless North Korea is your view of a "utopia", where the politically connected, the politically correct, and the conformists are rewarded by government and anyone that speaks out, or has an opposing view is simply disappeared.
- pc86 10y ago
  > I like to think people are generally good Any study of history will almost immediately dispel you of this view.
  - hga 10y ago
    As my favorite history teacher said, to great amusement of the class, "Original Sin is an empirical observation".

Natanael_L 10y ago

"Drowning in data" http://www.zdnet.com/article/nsa-whistleblowers-security-thinthread-largest-failure-in-nsa-history/ http://www.zdnet.com/article/nsa-whistleblowers-security-thi... More data does not make for greater accuracy or efficiency. More intelligence (human effort) does.

pc86 10y ago

> the problem is not collecting the information, but how it's used You can (barely) control how the current administration uses the information it has. You have no way of controlling how the administration will use that information in 10 years.