2 ms·
The whole premise is pernicious nonsense at its root. Privacy is important for many reasons, and throwing in the towel on it because high tech makes mass survei
by api 7y ago
The whole premise is pernicious nonsense at its root. Privacy is important for many reasons, and throwing in the towel on it because high tech makes mass surveillance easy is like giving up on laws and taboos against murder because guns make killing people easy.
"Welp, we just invented the machine gun. It's so easy to mow people down now we might as well just embrace this new post-machine-gun reality!"
- lotsofpulp 7y agoThe premise makes sense to me, because nature sometimes doesn't allow for the ideal circumstances to exist. Society needs to have a police (or security) force, and there will always be some members of society with more power than others. The only way for the people with less power to hold the more powerful is via transparency. I think it would be very interesting to see what would happen if everyone's financial comings and goings were public information.
- api 7y agoThat's not what they're talking about. They're talking about giving up on the idea of privacy in any context and proposing an "egalitarian panopticon" as some kind of solution. Not only would that be dystopian in it's own way (think gossipy small town plus professional trolls powered by big data plus the digital marketing/propaganda industry), but an egalitarian panopticon is just outright fantasy. The rich and very tech savvy have the resources or expertise to cheat. It would not stay egalitarian long.