Bernie Goldbach in LIT-Clonmel | Image from O'Reilly
Cory Doctorow warned about "the coming century of war against your computer" in a presenation at the LONG NOW Foundation. The war has started.
Copyright wars, net neutrality, and Ireland's version of the Stop Online Piracy Act will continue showing up in legislatures. It's important that people articulate how we should conduct ourselves in these issues because we depend upon a digital layer in our daily lives.
Machine intelligence is everywhere. You have to disable camera features from logging where you snap a shot. Your mobile phone is a GPS tracker. When many of my friends drive on motorways in Ireland, they leave behind electronic markers of their journeys via eFlow dongles on their windscreens. We have accepted electronic surveillance in our pockets when we use clever technology.
Stewart Brand warns that we put computers "into our bodies--pacemakers, cochlear implants. They have to be trustworthy."
Doctorow argues for "Human Rights versus Property Rights", "Lockdown versus Certainty", and "Owners versus mere Users". Doctorow lays down the case of people owning the machines they buy, "even if it what you do with it pisses off the vendor."
Cory Doctorow Long Term Thinking
Doctorow favours keeping your own electronic storage system. He supports public defense of freedom in every sort of digital rights issue. Doctorow's thoughts are important. I've uploaded the audio of his seminar in San Francisco and encourage readers to visit the LONG NOW site.
Down the Avenue -- "Cory Doctorow on the coming century of war against your computer", August 3, 2012.
Photo credit: Oreillynet.com.
Subscribe to the LONG NOW podcasts. They inform my judgment about culture.
