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First off, I am not pro or anti USA or China. Just curious and hoping to have a constructive dialogue. What moral high ground is USA on in the Snowden era? Why

by srndh 8y ago

First off, I am not pro or anti USA or China. Just curious and hoping to have a constructive dialogue. What moral high ground is USA on in the Snowden era? Why trust Cisco or Apple or Google or Facebook or Microsoft in USA's Prism? With the "Five Eyes", how to trust Nokia or Ericsson or Blackberry? What ethical high-ground are the tax evading tech giants on? Lets not forget how the pharma mobs are gaming the patent system to run an extortion ring on life saving medicines like insulin or the planned obsolescence when the world is rushing to reduce global warming. Its sad to see a place of learning is getting into politics & business. How different is this from the patent battles between Oracle & Google or Apple, Microsoft & Samsung? Google is poaching chips guys from various sources to compete with Apple. Then all the poaching in AI & self driving & electric cars. Lets not forget the "borrowing" done my Jobs & Gates from Xerox PARC that founded the Silicon Valley. As a consumer, due to Huawei & Mi. Samsung & other brands have started lowering the price. Hope Google poached the right team to make a better chip than what Apple has. Hopefully Apple also will start selling sensible priced devices. MIT should instead be working for growing an opensource culture in China. Which already seems to have something of that sort but limited due to all being in Chinese language.

smsm42 8y ago
> Why trust Cisco or Apple or Google or Facebook or Microsoft in USA's Prism? You don't have to trust them. Definitely you better not to. But that doesn't make you to trust Huawei either. At least Google/Facebook are subject to US government, which is controlled by a (still) functioning democracy. Huawei is controlled by a violent authoritarian dictatorship. I'd say however I mistrust Google, I'd probably still mistrust Chinese Communist Party more. There are mechanisms in the US that prevent or impede governmental abuse. They are not faultless - they still get a lot of abuse through. But some is caught, and some becomes public (yes, Snowden - but the things were starting to seep through even before he blew up the dam). In China, I don't see even these partial and faulty impediments to government control. > Its sad to see a place of learning is getting into politics & business. Most major educational institutions are already billion-dollar businesses. And with this size, connection to politics is inevitable. And if Huawei does business in the US, it would be subject to the same rules other US businesses playing by - where being suspect of performing surveillance on the users on behalf of the government - let alone the government like Chinese one, - or enabling widespread human rights abuse - is a big black mark. The one which mere lower prices are not going to erase.
masko 8y ago
I get what you mean but it has more to do with who's running those companies. Google, Microsoft, and Facebook are American companies. In all honesty I'd rather have an American company spy on American people, rather than a Chinese company doing so. China is catching up with tech and their government is totalitarian. Privacy doesn't exist in China, and it could be scary to think what they would do with data gathered from spying on us. I don't want any involvement of theirs in American schools or companies.

by srndh 8y ago

smsm42 8y ago

> Why trust Cisco or Apple or Google or Facebook or Microsoft in USA's Prism? You don't have to trust them. Definitely you better not to. But that doesn't make you to trust Huawei either. At least Google/Facebook are subject to US government, which is controlled by a (still) functioning democracy. Huawei is controlled by a violent authoritarian dictatorship. I'd say however I mistrust Google, I'd probably still mistrust Chinese Communist Party more. There are mechanisms in the US that prevent or impede governmental abuse. They are not faultless - they still get a lot of abuse through. But some is caught, and some becomes public (yes, Snowden - but the things were starting to seep through even before he blew up the dam). In China, I don't see even these partial and faulty impediments to government control. > Its sad to see a place of learning is getting into politics & business. Most major educational institutions are already billion-dollar businesses. And with this size, connection to politics is inevitable. And if Huawei does business in the US, it would be subject to the same rules other US businesses playing by - where being suspect of performing surveillance on the users on behalf of the government - let alone the government like Chinese one, - or enabling widespread human rights abuse - is a big black mark. The one which mere lower prices are not going to erase.

masko 8y ago

I get what you mean but it has more to do with who's running those companies. Google, Microsoft, and Facebook are American companies. In all honesty I'd rather have an American company spy on American people, rather than a Chinese company doing so. China is catching up with tech and their government is totalitarian. Privacy doesn't exist in China, and it could be scary to think what they would do with data gathered from spying on us. I don't want any involvement of theirs in American schools or companies.