4 ms·

It's disheartening that politicians can barely confirm whether they even know what is going on (i.e. what they vote for on our behalf), let alone the have the c

It's disheartening that politicians can barely confirm whether they even know what is going on (i.e. what they vote for on our behalf), let alone the have the capacity to grasp the scale of the surveillance and its (eventual) misuse. It takes at least a modest understanding of math and computers to understand the gravity of such a dragnet, which is very discouraging to me. And when white house reps defend themselves with gems like, "informing people about false claims isn't necessarily what we do," is even less reassuring. On that note, an interesting article on acm.org was recently posted about about how politics, and not encryption, is the only way to make it change. I think the reason why a lot of us invest so heavily in encryption solutions is because the above makes us so incredibly cynical that politics will achieve anything.

Wingman4l7 13y ago
> I think the reason why a lot of us invest so heavily in encryption solutions is because the above makes us so incredibly cynical that politics will achieve anything. That approach is very dangerous. Basically, if we don't push for political change and just resort to highly technical fixes, then that leaves 95% of the rest of the population out in the cold -- and if [most] everyone else isn't using crypto, how are we supposed to communicate with them? I credit Cory Doctorow with an excellent explanation of this, which he coins "nerd determinism" in his piece "The problem with nerd politics": http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/14/problem-nerd-politics http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/14/problem-ner... (a direct link to the podcast of said column, for those on the go: http://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_229/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_229_The_problem_with_nerd_politics.mp3 http://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_229/Cory_D... )
- MattyRad 13y ago
  Yes, I agree. I wasn't saying that we should pursue nerd determinism, only that cynicism with such a political system makes some us more inclined to find non-political solutions. But the unfortunate reality is that it is not enough, and we need to get involved in politics, however painful that may be.

Wingman4l7 13y ago

> I think the reason why a lot of us invest so heavily in encryption solutions is because the above makes us so incredibly cynical that politics will achieve anything. That approach is very dangerous. Basically, if we don't push for political change and just resort to highly technical fixes, then that leaves 95% of the rest of the population out in the cold -- and if [most] everyone else isn't using crypto, how are we supposed to communicate with them? I credit Cory Doctorow with an excellent explanation of this, which he coins "nerd determinism" in his piece "The problem with nerd politics": http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/14/problem-nerd-politics http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/14/problem-ner... (a direct link to the podcast of said column, for those on the go: http://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_229/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_229_The_problem_with_nerd_politics.mp3 http://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_229/Cory_D... )

MattyRad 13y ago
Yes, I agree. I wasn't saying that we should pursue nerd determinism, only that cynicism with such a political system makes some us more inclined to find non-political solutions. But the unfortunate reality is that it is not enough, and we need to get involved in politics, however painful that may be.