| |
| META TOPICPARENT | name="FirstEssay" |
|---|
| |
>
> | | | | Trust issues | |
>
> | | | | | |
<
< | The level of trust we are willing to place on things that we do not understand is surprisingly high. To use myself as an example, I do not know how any technology works, but I store my credit cards information on iPhone, store all my photos on Baidu Cloud and talk freely on Wechat on topics that I probably should not talk freely about. The reasons I did not educate myself on privacy issues are, firstly, I am not good with technology; second, I have (almost) nothing to hide; third, I am not important enough for anyone to watch; and fourth, even assume my browsing history was sold on the market, what is the harm?
Despite my ignorance, I have an expectation of privacy. Is that delusional? After all, storing my photos on the cloud is like storing it in a box and leaving it on the street. When it comes to cyberspace, we have a false sense of security. | >
> | Nowadays, the level of trust we place on things that we do not understand is surprisingly high. To use myself as an example, I store my credit card information on iPhone and my photos on Baidu Cloud and talk freely on WeChat? , without knowing who else has access to this information. The reasons I did not educate myself on privacy issues are, firstly, I am not good with technology; second, I have (almost) nothing to hide; third, I am not important enough for anyone to watch; and fourth, even assume my browsing history was sold on the market, what is the harm? | | | I think most people share my ignorance and the attitude of indifference: they do not know how computers or phones work, and they are not going to bother figuring it out. | |
<
< | Because we do not know, we trust the people who know, without inquiring whether they have a good intention or not. When software becomes a necessity in human life, when software provides us with content to read, transportation to ride, games to play and porns to watch, software affect and control our consciousness. The ability to create and control software is power. With that power, they exert dominion over us in a way that the Genghis Khan had never dreamed of.
In the age that most men are illiterate, the men who are not hold the power. The ruling class derives the power by impoverishing other people. As long as the people struggled in feeding themselves and their families, they had no time to learn to read and write. Software is a new form of power, and the power is derived from our laziness to learn about it. One thousand year ago, when time was scarce in a common man's life, the class that can afford the time to learn to read and write is warranted access to power. Nowadays, time is no longer scarcity, as technology has freed human from most of the repetitive work that our ancestors spend most of their time on. With money becoming the new scarcity, the capitalists are given the access to power. The ancient ruling class, while trusted with the lives of their people, had done more ill than good. Similarly, why capitalists/coders who run the biggest technology companies that possess most people's consciousness should be given trust freely by the public, relying on nothing but their good will?
It is not that capitalists and coders are bad people. It is just that human can hardly resist the temptation to achieve personal gains by screwing their fellow men, when no consequence attaching. Our ancestors were limited by time constraint to learn to read and write. However, our limitation is only our laziness. While a peasant, living in the Ming Dynasty, could not possibly be blamed for being illiterate, the public in our age has a civil duty to educate themselves on things that are running their phones and computers. The cost of knowledge is free, and therefore, there is no reason why we are ignorant. | >
> | Software has becomes a necessity in human life. It provides us with content to read, transportation to ride, games to play and porns to watch. Software affects and controls our consciousness. The ability to create and control software is power. With that power, the rich and powerful exerts dominion over us in a way that Genghis Khan had never dreamed of. | | | | |
<
< | It is always in the best interest of the rulers to keep his people ignorant. Laozi wanted to create a world in which "the people renounce [their] sageness and discard [their] wisdom," and "they should think their (coarse) food sweet; their (plain) clothes beautiful; their (poor) dwellings places of rest; and their common (simple) ways sources of enjoyment." For centuries, the rulers did not know how to accomplish that. They resorted to violence to subdue their people, and trembled in fear of being overthrown by greater violence. Now, technology provides the perfect solution. Software that possesses our thinking and consciousness can create a feeling of contentedness by providing the right stimuli. They can make us think the food that they want us to consumer delicious, clothes beautiful. They reduce us to datapoint, of which the only purpose is to consume. | >
> | It is always in the best interest of the rulers to keep the people ignorant. Laozi wanted to create a world in which "the people renounce [their] sageness and discard [their] wisdom," and "they should think their (coarse) food sweet; their (plain) clothes beautiful; their (poor) dwellings places of rest; and their common (simple) ways sources of enjoyment." For centuries, the rulers did not know how to accomplish that. They resorted to violence to subdue their people, while trembled in fear of being overthrown by greater violence. Now, technology provides the perfect solution. Software that possesses and controls our thinking and consciousness can create a feeling of contentedness by providing the right stimuli. They can make us think the food that they want us to consumer delicious, clothes beautiful. They reduce us to data points, of which the only purpose is to consume. | | | | |
<
< | The Chinese Communist Party, abandons its long-time resistance to and suppression of the internet use and decides to actively participate in creation of the "internet economy." Xi Jinping, addressing the Chinese entrepreneurs who attend the World Internet Conference yesterday, said that the advancement of internet economy should follow these four principles: first, respect of sovereignty rights on the internet; second, protection of peace and safety; third, promotion of cooperation between various parties; and fourth, creation and maintenance of order and harmony. To translate this to plain English, he means that China will use the internet technology, with the help from the internet services provider, to maintain its sovereignty and social order, and the use of internet is subject to the laws he creates. The psychological network that Facebook and Tencent created, will be incorporated into the bureaucracy of the Chinese Communist Party. | >
> | The Chinese Communist Party used to resist and suppress the internet. In recent years, it started to abandon such position and began to embrace the internet. The network provides them the perfect way to control peoples’ mind while appearing reformative and open-minded. Xi Jinping recently attended the World Internet Conference held in Wuzhen and addressed the internet tycoons in China. He said that the advancement of internet economy should follow four principles: first, respect of sovereignty on the internet; second, protection of peace and safety; third, promotion of cooperation between various parties; and fourth, creation and maintenance of social order and harmony. What he really means is that China will use the network, with the help from the internet services providers, to maintain its sovereignty and social order. The psychological network that Facebook and Tencent have created, will be incorporated into the bureaucracy of the Chinese Communist Party at last. | | | | |
<
< | Never before, the ruler of China is this close in creating the ideal world that Laozi aspired by reducing his people to complete ignorance and eliminating the urge to rebel. Such urge is felt by any person with the freedom of mind when he is in bondage. People who control the technology control the social outcome. This time, the technology they use is so formidable that not only are capable of eradicating dissident voices, but also rebellious thoughts. | >
> | This should serve a wake-up call to all the people who trade off their privacy for convenience, who think that the only harm is seeing the advertisement of goods and services that they want to buy anyway. What is at stake is personal freedom. In deciding a Fourth Amendment case, Judge Greenaway expressed his concern over the intrusiveness of GPS tracking device, “while ‘[y]ou can preserve your anonymity from prying eyes, even in public, by traveling at night, through heavy traffic, in crowds, by using a circuitous route, disguising your appearance, passing in and out of buildings and being careful not to be followed,” there is “no hiding from the all-seeing network of GPS satellites that hover overhead, which never sleep, never blink, never get confused and never lose attention.”’ U.S. v. Katzin, 732 F.3d 187, 196 (3d Cir.,2013) (quoting U.S. v. Pineda–Moreno, 617 F.3d 1120, 1126 (9th Cir.2010) (Kozinski, C.J., dissenting)). The network is one hundred folds more intrusive. Not only it tracks where you have been, what you have read, and who you have been talking to, it knows what you think, consciously and unconsciously, and controls what you buy and how you behave.
Never before, the ruler of China is close to creating the ideal world that Laozi aspired by reducing his people to complete ignorance and eliminating entirely the urge to rebel. People who control the technology control the social outcome. This time, the technology they use is so formidable that it is not only capable of eradicating dissident voices but also rebellious thoughts. | | | | |
<
< | Now, it becomes our duty to value our privacy and to protect our privacy. Otherwise, before we know, the freedom of thinking is gone. | >
> | To safeguard our privacy, our consciousness and our thinking becomes a civic duty. We have to educate ourselves on the ways that software works, to take control of software that runs on our computers and smartphones, and to protect the data we generate from any third party. | | |
\ No newline at end of file | |
>
> | If software does not work for us but for someone else, it will be used to suppress and oppress. It will end the freedom of mind and freedom of choices as we know them. | | | \ No newline at end of file |
|