Eben Moglen: Why Freedom of Thought Requires Attention

[Bulkley]

re:publica 2019 - Eben Moglen: Why Freedom of Thought Requires Attention

We are building the new neuro-anatomy of the human race. In the process we are destroying the human attention system, changing our idea of what it means to be human. The effect on our capacity for freedom and self-government is devastating, but not so bad for those who want to govern us. People are increasingly aware of the problem, but don't know what to do. In this talk, I explain how and why.

[oswaldkelso]

Thanks for that. The miss use of technology, remember Windows shrink wrap licencing and Apples forcing of itunes, was one of the main reasons for my venturing in to free software and installing Debian all those years ago. Things have moved on from there and the challenges have changed. Now we have the threat of non free hardware and surveillance that leads to data having more value than oil. The miss use of our data undermine the very fabric of the free world. We free software users are part of the front line defending it.

Shoshana Zuboff: Surveillance Capitalism and Our Democracy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJwf6oLvc2Q

https://guardianbookshop.com/age-of-sur ... alism.html?
Book description

I will make a guarantee: Assuming we survive to tell the tale, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism has a high probability of joining the likes Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations and Max Weber's Economy and Society as defining social-economics texts of modern times. It is not a 'quick read;' it is to be savored and re-read and discussed with colleagues and friends. No zippy one-liners from me, except to almost literally beg you to read/ingest this book -Tom Peters author of In Search of Excellence

Society is at a turning point. The heady optimism that accompanied the advent of the Internet is gone replaced by a deep unease. Technologies that were meant to liberate us have exacerbated social inequalities and stoked explosive political climates across the world. Tech companies gather our information online and sell it to the highest bidder, whether government or retailer. In this world of surveillance capitalism, profit depends not only on predicting our behaviour but modifying it too. How will this fusion of capitalism and the digital shape our values and define our future?

Shoshana Zuboff shows that we are at a critical juncture. We still have the power to decide what kind of world we want to live in, and what we decide now will shape the rest of the century. Our choices: allow technology to enrich the few and impoverish the many, or harness it and distribute its benefits.

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is a deeply-reasoned examination of the threat of unprecedented power free from democratic oversight. As it explores this new capitalism's impact on society, politics, business, and technology, it exposes the fundamental struggles that will decide both the next chapter of capitalism and the meaning of information civilization. Most critically, it shows how we can protect ourselves and our communities ensuring we are the masters of the digital rather than its slaves.

[golinux]

WOW! This is a fantastic presentation!!

[sickpig]

first world problems

[Head_on_a_Stick]

The video's a bit long, is there a précis somewhere?

[alan stone]

^ This maybe: part 1 (~15 min. video + transcript), part 2 (q&a excerpt of the "a bit long video").

[golinux]

The video's a bit long, is there a précis somewhere?

It's worth it to take the time to watch. Interestingly the subject of that conference was "tl;dr". LOLOL!

[Head_on_a_Stick]

@golinux & @{alan stone}, sorry but that was intended as a (lame) joke. Thanks for your helpful replies.

[golinux]

Yeah, pretty lame indeed.

[kedaha]

I regret to say that I fell asleep halfway through the Eben Moglen talk so I'll have another go at watching it but not from a reclining position. I did get through the other Zuboff talk posted above without dropping off because I made myself a cup of coffee.
Yes, it certainly does look like smart phones are continually garnering data about users so it'll be good news when that new Debian-based FOSS Librem 5 smartphone finally becomes available; the only drawback is that it's on the expensive side. Apart from the intrusiveness of closed-source mobile phone software, which might contain any number of malicious features, there is the controlling effect on both thought-patterns and behaviour to be considered, especially of the younger generations who have grown up with these devices and whose capacity to think independently and critically may affected.

[trinidad]

The song remains the same. You cannot draw conclusions without a benchmark and human mental activity has no real benchmark, only an ideal one. Or like Davidson would pose: how do you draw real conclusions about the reality of human thought by thinking about it? What we make or do, regardless of any prevailing social structure, is only driven by interest. If large sections of the world lose interest any thing or system or idea humanly produced can fall by the wayside like so much litter on the highway. The closer people become in a shrinking world the more they strive to separate themselves from prevailing thought. Beyond that this is just Heidegger, Lyotard, post-modernism, rehashed. We've always been doomed, yet somehow individual thoughts remain beyond the scope of human analytical thinking, so we socialize because we are afraid for and of ourselves.

TC

[oswaldkelso]

Always been doomed. Yes. But the search for truth and hence knowledge require you to at least try to look with as clear a mind as possible. If one knows there are forces aiming to change that truth and our fellow people are being manipulated we have a duty to resist. Nature and nurture are all ultimately reshaped and so carry on shaping us. But knowing that is the key in the search for the best truth we can obtain. Some claim to have found enlightenment but most accept being mere mortals.
Personally I try and socialize as little as possible. Especially when around people that have no interest in the truth or talk twaddle. Maybe enlightenment will come to me.

[golinux]

Maybe enlightenment will come to me.

Not without very deep observation of phenomena ie. data coming to your sense doors moment to moment and just letting the pure data stream pass through.

[Bulkley]

Recently I was in a home with a Google Home Assistant in the kitchen. The kids used it to help with their homework and make phone calls. "Google, call Mom." and it does. That thing is listening to everything within range 24/7.