Free Pietje 🇵🇸 🍉Feb 17, 2019

On  @SamHarrisOrg said:
"Welcome to the panopticon...
China becomes an episode of Black Mirror"
and shared this article:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-18/china-social-credit-a-model-citizen-in-a-digital-dictatorship/10200278

to which my response was:
"Give it 5-10 years, then we'll have it too, but with better marketing, but effectively similar.
IIRC Eindhoven has a system (in pilot?) 'similar' as shown in the head picture (Person of Interest style) ... for a snitch city project. Fighting crime and/or terrorism will be used too"

Leave no dark corner

Dandan Fan's every move will soon be watched and judged by her government, and she's happy about that. "Social credit" will unite Big Brother and big data to coerce more than a billion people.

ABC News
Show threadFree Pietje 🇵🇸 🍉Nov 28, 2019

Great ~3 minute video which explains nicely why I focus so much on #privacy as it shows the dangers of #surveillance #capitalism.
Viewpoint_ ‘We’re living in an age of surveillance capitalism’ _ BBC Ideas
https://peertube.mastodon.host/videos/watch/e0737406-9c87-41dd-bda9-5b927474a73e

h/t [email protected]

#panopticon

Viewpoint_ ‘We’re living in an age of surveillance capitalism’ _ BBC Ideas

PeerTube
Show threadFree Pietje 🇵🇸 🍉Aug 25, 2020

I just realized that the above video was @aral speaking 👌

And I recently found https://video.lqdn.fr/videos/watch/861c07f7-7e9b-4e64-9765-cf1de592c8a0 in which Aral explains the problem to the European Parliament.
I couldn't agree more with what he said.

I wish I could explain it so clearly and concisely.
I recently tried to explain centralized vs decentralized to a friend after mentioning Mastodon as being some kind of decentralized Twitter.
I'm doubtful whether that person understood it enough to explain it to someone else.

The future internet regulation - Aral Balkan at the European Parliament - With Slides

PeerTube
Show threadMr. TeatimeAug 26, 2020

@FreePietje
I had difficulties explaining federation today to someone who uses e-mail as one of their main communication channels. I don't understand what makes it so hard to understand, but it's a recurring issue.

Of course it's simpler to have Company X own protocol X, run the exclusive server for X, and thus handle all users of X -- but people do know e-mail, so why is this so hard, even to those who know a world before Gmail?
@aral

Show threadFree Pietje 🇵🇸 🍉

@Mr_Teatime
I think that most people aren't interested in how technology works, but do ofc use it.
Likewise, most ppl use email but have no idea how it works and can only configure an email client by following a detailed step-by-step guide, with pictures.

The person I explained it to doesn't care about tech, so I kept it strictly to centralized vs decentralized as that was the core of the issue I tried to explain. No further details (federated vs p2p) as that would only be confusing.

@aral

Aug 26, 2020 at 8:18pmWeb
Show threadMr. TeatimeAug 26, 2020

@FreePietje @aral
Oh sure, and I get that (and why) people don't like having to configure their e-mail client (and choose a provider...).

What I meant is that just the concept of a federated service itself, which predates Facebook or Google and is still used by more people than Facebook ... there's something about it which seems to turn people off, long before it gets to the actual doing.

Show threadFree Pietje 🇵🇸 🍉Aug 27, 2020

@Mr_Teatime
Note that it very much depends on the person you're talking to.

I actually meant that it's not "don't like to", but "don't know/understand how to". For many people tech is like magic.

~ related: https://x0f.org/@FreePietje/104687084180771828
I love the whole episode, but the interaction between Oliver and Snowden was illuminating for me.
Around 24min: "Don't teach me anything. I don't want to learn. You smell like canned soup"
I've gotten the impression that it applies to a LOT of people wrt IT.

@aral

Free Pietje (@[email protected])

@[email protected] @[email protected] I think/fear we 'techies' overestimate the impact of the Snowden leaks, illustrated brilliantly and funny by John Oliver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEVlyP4_11M The apathy wrt Big Tech abuses is also worrying. This doesn't mean I disagree with you.

x0f.org
Show threadFree Pietje 🇵🇸 🍉Aug 27, 2020

@Mr_Teatime @aral
That's why I like those video's by Aral so much.
In the first one, he explains in <3 minutes what the problem is without any tech jargon. I think my friend would understand that. (Changing behavior is another matter though.)

The 2nd one is for a different audience and I deliberately linked to the one with slides/pictures as that really helped to explain the differences.

Being concise is a always a problem for me and I rarely have a great analogy ready, which would've helped.

Show threadMr. TeatimeAug 27, 2020

@FreePietje
oooh yes, I remember that episode :)
And I completely get his attitude, although slightly exaggerated for comic effect.

You *cannot* understand all the things in your life. You *must* choose what to engage with and what not, consciously or otherwise. All us "I wanna understand everything" and "why don't people pay attention" types are just not noticing the million other things *we* don't recognize as relevantm even after spending huge amounts of time researching stuff ...
@aral

Show threadMr. TeatimeAug 27, 2020

@FreePietje @aral
...but I still expected basically every user of e-mail to instantly recognize how a communication network can be run by different independent providers. Maybe not some of the younger people who never knew anything but Gmail, but pretty much everyone else.

That I am wrong about this shows that there's something I don't understand -- but it's still rather quite annoying, if I may say so. Even more annoying that many don't seem to see advantage to federation.

Show threadFree Pietje 🇵🇸 🍉Aug 27, 2020

@Mr_Teatime
I really do understand what you mean and where you're coming from as I've felt/acted the same for quite a while.

But I've seen too many times people 'glaze over' that I've now swung over to the other end: I assume that people don't want/care to know.
If I, despite that, get the feeling that the person might want to know more, I just straight up ask and also say that 'no' is a perfectly good answer.
It has resulted for me in less stress/frustration :)