Mathematical prof that surveillance harms x 1K more than it could potentially help.

  • eldavi@lemmy.ml
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    3 days ago

    … Politicians either don’t understand or don’t want to understand that once an encryption is broken, it is equivalent to there being no encryption in the first place. And their ignorance… And I truly want to believe that that’s their ignorance. It causes such disproportional oppression, that I am stupefied that not enough people scream about it.

    Still there is a possibility that it is not ignorance. There is a possibility that it is just a political stunt. A sort of red herring, to mislead you into not asking the questions of proportionality. And that they are actually just trying to take control over us all.

    the politicians are merely mouth pieces and useful idiots to enable such draconian measures and the author is right in believing that it’s not all merely ignorance.

    my own experience as as software engineer tells me that the most gifted engineers are gung-ho about these measures because it appeals to their intellectual curiosity and the affects upon humanity for such intellectual pursuits doesn’t enter into the equation at all; even the ones who are sympathetic to leftists causes don’t care so long as their mortgages are paid and they can afford to put their children into the best schools.

    expect no help from the tech bros and tech lefty’s alike.

    • Killercat103@slrpnk.net
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      2 days ago

      I guess I’m a tech lefty and yeah its honestly a bit teriffying and I dont get why almost no one I meet does not care for it.

      • eldavi@lemmy.ml
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        2 days ago

        i think it’s crazy high salaries; it insulates them from the problems that the rest of us have have to deal with in our lives.

        i first noticed it around the tail end of the earlier “IT half” of my career when my payrate started to push up against six figures; now at over 20 years as a software engineering that’s solidly past that boundary (like most well connected software engineers are); the opinions/outlooks/expectations of my colleagues have become so toxic to me that i’ve decided to go back to IT permanently.

        also: the work seemed to get more and more evil as i progressed in the software engineering half of my career. i’m convinced my current gig is a net detriment to humanity and society like all my software engineering gigs were and i’ll be taking a 56% pay cut to avoid the that profit-seeking-evil in a non-profit organization that teaches people who can’t afford to dedicate their lives to a college degree like a 19 year old from the suburbs can do.

        a big part of me is sad that i will never become rich like my current colleagues; but i think that my psychological well being matters more and it’s a union job so there are other perks that help compensate for it.

        • Blender Dumbass@lm.madiator.cloudOP
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          1 day ago

          a big part of me is sad that i will never become rich like my current colleagues

          I know this feeling. I was finishing my film Moria’s Race which is libre and will never make a single cent. And then I went to see Spielberg’s Auto-Biographical film “The Fablemans” and it literally broke me. The amount of evil I have to agree to do just to have a chance at something like this. Oh my god. It didn’t help to go see Avatar 2 right after that.

          The worst is that a lot of people delude themselves that they are good. I don’t think Spielberg is a bad person. The messages in his films seem to point that he is firmly on the side of freedom. Though he never thought about copyright, for example, as being anything evil yet. And probably if somebody will point it out to him, his age is such that there is probably very little neuro-plasticity left there, and if he somehow justified copyright all this time, it will be hard to convince him otherwise now. Not even talking about how his whole career is basically holding on the fact that copyright exists.

          To do something about this whole apocalypse, we need to change values. GDP has to go away! Something like a freedom score should replace it. That will already force governments to divert from stupid ideas like “chat control”. And perhaps will make them start supporting Free / Libre projects. And then of course, there should be ways to make money in Free / Libre to convince those who care only about how big their pockets are. Donations do not cut it. They are good, but they feel pathetic in comparison to what a proprietary alternative makes. There should be a way to make money without restricting freedom. Devices is a good start. Librem5 and PinePhone are amazing. Software is totally free. Maybe something like a reverse-crowd-funding could be implemented for simple software. Basically the changes aren’t even released to begin with, until people come and fill up a can full of money. Each can send a cent or a million dollars. But the idea is, the developer chooses how much will unlock the release. And since it is unlocked it is totally free. And to avoid proprietary versions, until it is unlocked nobody has access apart from the devs.

        • Killercat103@slrpnk.net
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          2 days ago

          That’s actually quite epic. Good on you dude! I have have developed some similar concers except I’m not a longtime software developer. I’m just comfortable with coding. Personally I would love working open-source or in a worker coop (though both seem like a kind of big ask locally) and my recent development of a leftist political orientation has given me an appetite for direct action. Though theres basically no anarchists or libertarians locally so I am interestingly enough working with ML’s. I don’t know how long this will satisfy me. I try not talking too much about “democratic” centeralism or lenin when I’m with them because enough those are red flags for me. (pun not intended)

          • eldavi@lemmy.ml
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            1 day ago

            … libertarians locally so I am interestingly enough working with ML’s.

            for a moment there i couldn’t tell if ml stood for marxist/leninist like it in for lemmy.ml or if it mean machine learning. lol

            and absolutely stay away FAR away from conversations about politics. my experience has taught me that highly placed/status-ed software engineers tend to be conservative (probably because of the money) and are perpetually on the hunt for dissident views to “protect” their “people” from “threats” and they will use their position to put you on a leash if they think you don’t fit in.