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Having large amounts of collected data on citizens doesn't create a tyrannical government. Nor is it required for a tyrannical government: the Nazis did horrib
by codex 13y ago
Having large amounts of collected data on citizens doesn't create a tyrannical government. Nor is it required for a tyrannical government: the Nazis did horrible things with very primitive technology. In the same vein, the U.S. government has had seventy years to become tyrannical with much more advanced technology, but it has not.
The key to foiling a tyrannical government is to prevent a tyrannical government from being created in the first place though the political process--checks and balances, rule of law, preservation of values, citizen involvement, democratic and fair elections. It is not by employing a few lame technological defenses or prohibiting specific practice X, Y, and Z. Those are useless against any sufficiently motivated government, and, if anything, they create a false sense of security. Government is not as it has, but as it does.
- sliverstorm 13y agoSidenote, the funny part is the people who tell you that, "No, the U.S. government of today is the most tyrannical government in history".
- keithnoizu 13y agoyes this is more like giving a would be future tyrannical government a large armory and list of people who may potentially oppose them in the future. As long as those checks and balances work it will never matter that anything any would be protester has said or done online can be recalled at a whim in the future for ad homimem attacks as needed.
- fauigerzigerk 13y agoI agree that preventing tyranny is not primarily a technological problem. But the abuse of power is not unrelated to how easy it is to abuse either. Technology can make it more difficult to abuse power, more difficult to hide any abuse and hence it makes any checks and balances more effective. Also, I think we haven't seen all forms of tyranny yet. It is very difficult for a democratically elected government not to enforce something popular they are technically capable of enforcing. Even if there is rule of law and checks and balances there is also a tendency toward ever more detailed control and even prediction of individual behaviour. I fear that the erosion of individual freedoms is possible even in perfectly good democratic societies if there are no technological barriers to that collective power grab. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely" remains true even if that power is legitimate. And my last point is that breaking the law is necessary for the advancement of the law and our societies. Law is not something that falls from the sky or magically emerges from the moral conscience of wise men and women. It is often the result of conflict. If you give too much power to the enforcers of current law that conflict could become too unequal for society to advance and avoid tyranny.
- bencollier49 13y agoI rather think that the holocaust would have been a touch more complete had the Nazis had access to big data.