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> But if you have a large portion of the population running these dishes, it's game over It is illegal to bring them into the country, and if you get caught do

by grecy 3y ago

> But if you have a large portion of the population running these dishes, it's game over It is illegal to bring them into the country, and if you get caught doing so it's jail time. That is true today of drones and any sat communication system in many, many countries.

syntheweave 3y ago
The black market tends to pop up to satisfy demand in violation of controls. Find a high ranking official who can tell the police to back off and cut them in: then you're in business, at least until they're purged. But even then, the next person in the seat will most likely respond to the same incentives and business will resume... Even in North Korea, this process takes place. It's just that much slower and riskier, and when lots of controls are slapped on people become too destitute to buy product. But the letter of the law is ultimately just a "threat" in your SWOT analysis when you're able to tempt people with personal gain. What good governance ultimately does is to enable everyone's indifference on these matters: the rules are out in the open, nobody's keeping secrets and blackmailing their rivals, and the result is sufficiently fair that going against it is a position only a tiny minority are inclined to take. Once everyone's in circumlocutions about their actual position because the politics have gotten out of hand, you have the kind of confusing, hysterical mess that would move someone to turn off the Internet rather than let any more rumors spread. Thus, this kind of tech - anything in the realm of decentralized communications - is easiest to access in the places of the world that need it the least.
- grecy 3y ago
  While your philosophical approach sounds good written down, I can tell you from experience, the reality on the ground is vastly different. I drove my own vehicle across the land borders into Mauritania, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo, DRC, Angola, Burundi, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Sudan, Egypt and about 40 more countries. You DO NOT want to bring sat communication equipment into countries where it is strictly prohibited. Some of those countries won't even let you bring 2-way radios in (military tech)

by grecy 3y ago

syntheweave 3y ago

The black market tends to pop up to satisfy demand in violation of controls. Find a high ranking official who can tell the police to back off and cut them in: then you're in business, at least until they're purged. But even then, the next person in the seat will most likely respond to the same incentives and business will resume... Even in North Korea, this process takes place. It's just that much slower and riskier, and when lots of controls are slapped on people become too destitute to buy product. But the letter of the law is ultimately just a "threat" in your SWOT analysis when you're able to tempt people with personal gain. What good governance ultimately does is to enable everyone's indifference on these matters: the rules are out in the open, nobody's keeping secrets and blackmailing their rivals, and the result is sufficiently fair that going against it is a position only a tiny minority are inclined to take. Once everyone's in circumlocutions about their actual position because the politics have gotten out of hand, you have the kind of confusing, hysterical mess that would move someone to turn off the Internet rather than let any more rumors spread. Thus, this kind of tech - anything in the realm of decentralized communications - is easiest to access in the places of the world that need it the least.

grecy 3y ago
While your philosophical approach sounds good written down, I can tell you from experience, the reality on the ground is vastly different. I drove my own vehicle across the land borders into Mauritania, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo, DRC, Angola, Burundi, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Sudan, Egypt and about 40 more countries. You DO NOT want to bring sat communication equipment into countries where it is strictly prohibited. Some of those countries won't even let you bring 2-way radios in (military tech)