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Wow. This is kind of like "The Truman Show" in a way. Imagine, being born there now, and your whole life you "access the Internet", without even realizing it's

Wow. This is kind of like "The Truman Show" in a way. Imagine, being born there now, and your whole life you "access the Internet", without even realizing it's not actually the Internet. Truly warped.

cpeterso 15y ago
How do I know if I'm using the Real Internet even now??
- Shank 15y ago
  What government would let a social news website through?
  - RyanMcGreal 15y ago
    Smart dictatorships have always recognized the value of bread and circuses at keeping people occupied.
  - philwelch 15y ago
    Oh that's easy. Every social news site has a groupthink--if it doesn't have one naturally, crowdsourced moderation, i.e. upvotes and downvotes, will end up creating it. You just set things up so the groupthink either agrees with The Agenda or gets angry at issues that don't impact the ruling party's agenda. Then you have the illusion of free speech and democracy without any actual risk to the power structure. For instance, people on HN seem to get really worked up about the TSA, sexism in the tech industry, the war on drugs, and the privacy implications of Facebook and Google. If you were trying to protect a totalitarian state, do you really think any of those would be part of the agenda? Things like the TSA and war on drugs could be deliberately bad policy designed to distract the easily outraged. As for Facebook and Google, the worst thing they're going to do with your personal information is target advertisements at you. A totalitarian state would probably just build a system like Echelon.
    - CodeMage 15y ago
      As for Facebook and Google, the worst thing they're going to do with your personal information is target advertisements at you. Sure, I bet that is what everyone is complaining about. It certainly can't be about the possibility of your private information ending up in hands that could do you harm with it, right? I mean, who in their right mind would be afraid of how a bank or an employer or a court or a government agency might use some innocuous bit of information they thought was private? After all, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to be afraid of...
      - pooriaazimi 15y ago
        Facebook and google are opt-in. You can stop using them anytime you want (use ddg instead of google). You can't decide which country you born in.
      - philwelch 15y ago
        That's still rather irrelevant to the agenda of our hypothetical totalitarian state. You know, the one that taps the Internet backbones and data mines it all anyway. I'm not saying its unworthy of criticism, just that it's not a fundamental challenge to the Powers That Be.
handzhiev 15y ago
This is actually the situation in North Korea now. For the few who can access computer at all.

cpeterso 15y ago

How do I know if I'm using the Real Internet even now??

Shank 15y ago
What government would let a social news website through?
- RyanMcGreal 15y ago
  Smart dictatorships have always recognized the value of bread and circuses at keeping people occupied.
- philwelch 15y ago
  Oh that's easy. Every social news site has a groupthink--if it doesn't have one naturally, crowdsourced moderation, i.e. upvotes and downvotes, will end up creating it. You just set things up so the groupthink either agrees with The Agenda or gets angry at issues that don't impact the ruling party's agenda. Then you have the illusion of free speech and democracy without any actual risk to the power structure. For instance, people on HN seem to get really worked up about the TSA, sexism in the tech industry, the war on drugs, and the privacy implications of Facebook and Google. If you were trying to protect a totalitarian state, do you really think any of those would be part of the agenda? Things like the TSA and war on drugs could be deliberately bad policy designed to distract the easily outraged. As for Facebook and Google, the worst thing they're going to do with your personal information is target advertisements at you. A totalitarian state would probably just build a system like Echelon.
  - CodeMage 15y ago
    As for Facebook and Google, the worst thing they're going to do with your personal information is target advertisements at you. Sure, I bet that is what everyone is complaining about. It certainly can't be about the possibility of your private information ending up in hands that could do you harm with it, right? I mean, who in their right mind would be afraid of how a bank or an employer or a court or a government agency might use some innocuous bit of information they thought was private? After all, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to be afraid of...
    - pooriaazimi 15y ago
      Facebook and google are opt-in. You can stop using them anytime you want (use ddg instead of google). You can't decide which country you born in.
    - philwelch 15y ago
      That's still rather irrelevant to the agenda of our hypothetical totalitarian state. You know, the one that taps the Internet backbones and data mines it all anyway. I'm not saying its unworthy of criticism, just that it's not a fundamental challenge to the Powers That Be.

handzhiev 15y ago

This is actually the situation in North Korea now. For the few who can access computer at all.