

The Creepy New Wave of the Internet - jonathansizz
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/nov/20/creepy-new-wave-internet/?

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api
Rifkin's comments are creepy. Yes it's true-- throughout most of human history
privacy didn't exist and people lived their lives in public. Yet it's also
true that much of human history was utter stagnation and conformity where
nothing much happened.

He also makes the common mistake, also made by Thiel when he discusses the
ethics of Palantir, of assuming that the panopticon is symmetrical. In reality
those with money, connections, or the criminal ability to break into systems
have access to _far_ more information than the average person. The loss of
privacy is extremely asymmetrical as well-- those with either the money or the
technical ability to hide can still do so.

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alexqgb
This underscores the fact that the word "privacy" is generally used as a
euphemism for power. Knowing this, you can safely substitute the word "power"
for "privacy" nearly everywhere it appeares.

The first thing you'll notice is that the vast majority of knotty questions or
issues in doubt clear themselves up quite quickly once you start discussing
the problem in honest, accurate terms.

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api
Whack!

Wow. I'm not even sure where that ball went. :)

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spacemanmatt
It'll make more sense when you know what time it is.

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intopieces
Reminds me very much of the Adam Curtis documentary "All Watched Over By
Machines of Loving Grace" (2011), which gives an interesting narrative of this
movement's beginning.

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Txcoder
I should make a bot that posts when Ray Kurzweil is mentioned or used as
source material for a HN post so I can save 30 seconds and a heavy sigh.

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proksoup
.... is this the aforementioned bot?

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pavlov
The bot whose only purpose is to yearn for its own existence; a Pinocchio who
wants to be a wooden puppet.

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yzzxy
A massively emasculated version of Roko's Basilisk.

