Bonum Certa Men Certa

Peak Code — Part I: Before the Wars

Article/series by Dr. Andy Farnell

This work is licensed under version 4.0 of the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA license

Series parts:

  1. YOU ARE HERE ☞ Before the Wars


Wars



Summary: "In the period between 1960 and 2060 people had mistaken what they called "The Internet" for a communications system, when it had in fact been an Ideal and a Battleground all along - the site of the 100 years info-war."

They ask me, "Grandad, what did you do in the software wars?" I went mad. No, that I cannot say. I want to tell them, "I coded for the resistance". But even today it is hard to talk about. Truth is, I was a coward. The "software wars" never really happened… not like people say. They're a story we tell today about how things fell apart. Sure, I was a great hacker, but like all the others I just gave up, and that's how we beat 'em… if this is winning.



"The humanists stood up to "bullshit jobs" and AI dehumanisation, and were dubbed Neo-Luddites."I think people knew it was coming. Digital technology had always created conflict. The humanists stood up to "bullshit jobs" and AI dehumanisation, and were dubbed Neo-Luddites. In the second and third crypto wars people fought for the right to private communication, and then for the right to use open plaintext protocols again, without mandated recipient codes. In the fog of creepy government lies contradiction and hypocrisy multiplied. People got confused. It took another 20 years to realise that encryption, for or against, had nothing to do with it. It was always about control.



Digital communications technology organised on large scales seemed inherently troublesome for meaningful human choice. But sometime in the last century it stopped serving people altogether. I remember your friend dying because her mother couldn't call an ambulance. Maybe, if it hadn't been for that Twitter thing with her work, if she hadn't been disconnected, things could have been different. The neighbours she blamed, they weren't bad people. Just afraid, like everyone. Unauthorised assistance meant certain disconnection. Besides, going outside for help, too risky for someone facebanned like her mum… one step too close to the Ring, a passing vehicle or stranger wearing Glasses would be enough.



The Semantic Wars (what they once called Culture Wars) had already made it impossible for anyone to talk to anyone else. Our fight to be heard amidst the trollbot armies, deepfake speech and meme mafia, was lost. The quest to have our words "mean what we mean" had silenced our voices and stripped away meaning. The Great Communication Breakdown was not a lack of will to talk, or "polarisation", but a failure of the medium of communication itself.



"The Great Communication Breakdown was not a lack of will to talk, or "polarisation", but a failure of the medium of communication itself."In the mid-twenties the Security Wars raged, to decide whose security was most important - the vendors or the 'users'. Until those days most of us had regarded security as a shared value, a tide to raise all ships. A more painful truth, is that under surveillance capitalism security is a zero sum game. With that kind of "security", your security is my insecurity, and vice versa.



I had never wondered until that time, how Orwellian contronyms arose, but soon we were divided into two camps. So-called "Secure Software", rubber-stamped by quasi-governmental corporations, was laughably insecure. Everyone knew it. But once governments had invested their pride, maintaining the pretence became a political priority. It gave the corporations a monopoly on commerce, medical and even educational computing. For a while the economy boomed for the certifiers, auditors, inquisitors, insurers and adjusters.



For everyone else, there was "Insecure Software", also called "Free Software" by older people. That was the stuff you needed if you really wanted safe and stable systems. Once Google and Microsoft controlled access to half the world's "secure" computers, society largely operated despite, not by, its consumer-communist institutions. Software became a Soviet-era black-market. For everything you needed there was an official solution, and an illegal "Insecure" one that actually worked.



"Once Google and Microsoft controlled access to half the world's "secure" computers, society largely operated despite, not by, its consumer-communist institutions."So, please understand, that by the time of the so-called Software Wars, everything was already "at war". Indeed, as historians now note, in the period between 1960 and 2060 people had mistaken what they called "The Internet" for a communications system, when it had in fact been an Ideal and a Battleground all along - the site of the 100 years info-war.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day