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At China’s Internet Conference, a Darker Side of Tech Emerges
- vezycash 8y agoThis article only hints about the dark side of tech - adds nothing new. Its main points are more about american/chinese politics than tech.
- pimmen 8y agoI think it's a good piece because it highlights that tech doesn't exist in a vacuum, and neither does ethical discussions. Engineers like to abstract things, such as just solving the problem of recognizing people based on their irises. But, when politics change I think you should reflect on who your customer is.
- coldtea 8y ago>Engineers like to abstract things, such as just solving the problem of recognizing people based on their irises. But, when politics change I think you should reflect on who your customer is. Engineers should be educated enough to know the consequences of such technologies.
- pimmen 8y agoThey are, they might just be in denial over how active their own role is.
- onetimemanytime 8y agoSadly they will find a group of engineers to do this and more. Even if they break the tech into innocent looking parts and then unite it into e finished nightmare products.
- EZ-E 8y agoI was also surprised by the vacuity of the article
- Leary 8y agoMaybe they'll fix fake news, I'm assuming they have them too.
- TazeTSchnitzel 8y agoAt AWS Rekognition Event, a Darker Side of Tech Emerges
- breakingcups 8y ago"The company has also started working with the authorities in Xinjiang, Mr. Wang said. The goal? To have a database of the irises of all Xinjiang residents within two years, he said." But, what is the actual goal of that? How will that be used?
- akavel 8y agoFor one not too nice possibility, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi
- umichguy 8y agoOrganizations like the Stasi would've loved to have existed in this current era. Things people put out in the open voluntarily are things probably would've taken so many resources to obtain.
- dis-sys 8y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Kunming_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Kunming_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Tiananmen_Square_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Tiananmen_Square_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianjin_Airlines_Flight_7554 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianjin_Airlines_Flight_7554 happy to see there is no more such incident in the last two years.
- rospaya 8y agoPutting people in reeducation camps guarantees more incidents like this.
- throwawayfri11 8y agoInterestingly, China's President was also sent to a reeducation camp in the 70s for 6 years and now he is the most powerful person in China.
- paraditedc 8y ago
- walrus1066 8y agoSurprised social credit isn't mentioned, it's incredibly dark and creepy concept. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/10/09/655921710/chinas-social-credit-system?t=1541752054532 https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/10/09/655921710/chin...
- paraditedc 8y agoSocial credit is a collection of policies, not strictly technological. I wrote a post that goes through the main points of the official social credit document: https://paraditedc.wordpress.com/2018/09/30/pdc-2-social-credit-system/ https://paraditedc.wordpress.com/2018/09/30/pdc-2-social-cre...
- newsbinator 8y agoIt's very creepy indeed, although not sure how dark it is, relatively speaking. If you've ever lived in a developing country for long enough, often you've thought "I wish people had some incentive to think about my safety/comfort, not just their own". Because they don't have that incentive, and for individuals there's no social pressure to think of "public" comfort. Priorities are: 1. family 2. myself 3. friends 4. people who may recognize me on the street The solution might be better education in school and through social programs, to build in a civic-minded or public-minded consciousness. But the shortcut seems to be, "if you're a lousy member of society, we'll curb your social freedoms and put you on a list". Is that creepy in the sense that it's invasive and "nanny state/big brother"? Absolutely. Is that dark? Well it has to be weighed against the darkness of kids growing up in a society in which life is cheap, OSHA is an incomprehensible joke, and "me-first" is the only driving force for the average person on the street. That's pretty dark too.
- brador 8y agoWho decides the rules you need to follow? That is the darkness.
- newsbinator 8y agoThat's the philosophical/political question at the heart of this. Although personally if whoever decides the rules is preventing people from running me over on the sidewalk, preventing smoking in my face while I wash my hands in the restroom, and taking businesses to task for scamming me, then... the darkness isn't that dark. I'd have to balance that against the over-reach of government indoctrination and blocking access to information. After enough times nearly being killed by an idiot on a motorbike, it's a genuine mental balancing act.
- ElBarto 8y agoChina-bashing is getting really tiring. There are as many companies working on these technologies in the West as in China.
- leereeves 8y agoYou're right, the West is also working on the technologies discussed in the article, like Internet monitoring and facial/gait recognition, and people are concerned about that too. But the West doesn't have a President for life, forced reeducation of Muslims, social credit, a Great Firewall, etc. Technology's potential to empower tyrants is even more frightening in a society already on the verge of tyranny.
- ElBarto 8y agoThis is China-bashing on the same level as during the 1950s, except that the racist aspect cannot be explicit anymore, and you're just repeating the official line that you've heard in the media.
- leereeves 8y agoAre you claiming that the "official line" is false? China doesn't censor the Internet, Xi Jinping isn't President for life, China isn't developing social credit or internment camps? Because if you're not saying that, if you don't have evidence that the "official line" is false, then I am concerned for the future well-being of the Chinese people. I'm not "bashing" them. I'm only "bashing" the Chinese government.
- ElBarto 8y agoI believe that the Chinese people are perfectly able to take care of themselves and do not need others to pretend to care.
- leereeves 8y agoWere murdered dissidents "perfectly able to take care of themselves"? I believe they could have used some help. I'm not sure how to effectively help them short of starting WW III, but speaking against China's policies and refusing to help the Chinese government is a start. Call that "China bashing" if you will but in America "bashing" government is an honored tradition.