Bonum Certa Men Certa

Technology: rights or responsibilities?

posted by Rianne Schestowitz on Sep 25, 2024,
updated Sep 25, 2024

By Dr. Andy Farnell

Introduction

I've been wondering why I enjoy occasionally writing things for the Techrights site? What does "tech rights" mean to me? Where does my philosophy touch on "digital rights"? Are there even such things as digital rights or might that idea actually subtract from more fundamental human rights? If they exist, where do they come from? Who claims them? Who defends them? And most of all - since I firmly believe that all rights are accompanied by duties - what are the obligations that people have toward technology?

On digital rights

human rights

The nub of this windy essay is that while the Free Software movement has changed the world, its effect is largely "internal". It has been more about the developers and project founders who make software than the users of software.

philosophy

That's because we frame things in terms of "rights". Despite the fact that all of us are now beneficiaries of Software Freedom, most people do not recognise the ideals undergirding the code that runs the world. We experience it only as packaged (Tivoised) proprietary produce much the way that consumers of processed food from supermarkets are disconnected from farmers.

Freedoom

I've recently read upsetting comments about the progress of Libre software as a social movement. Alexandre Oliva took some flack for his LibrePlanet 2024 talk. Though the response was clumsy and rude, the frustration expressed by people struggling to survive in techno-authoritarian regimes is not without merit and behoves reflection. As the crimes of mass surveillance and dehumanisation through technology grow, we seem at a loss to explain the failure of humans to steer digital technology, either by democracy or markets, and the failure of "rights and freedom" alone to offer a credible counter to our plight.

unity and peace

My suggestion is that we need to turn this around and re-frame the problem in terms of responsibilities. Rights always come with them. Technology already offers us so much freedom. Maybe too much? Squandering great opportunity for unity and peace we've mostly used it to spread hate and fear, and amuse ourselves to death. Shouldn't we examine this? If digital technology as a whole were a single program we would be furiously typing at the debugger by now.

hate

fear

Next we want to use it to kill art and culture in the name of "efficiency" and in vainglory of our golden calf of the week, "AI". Libre software (and any connected movement for digital rights) is thus drunk on the same wine as Capitalism. But what is wrong with Capitalism, tree of all the fruits we relish?

rights and freedom

golden calf

Someone recently asked me, "am I anti-capitalist?". With serious and sincere thought I had to say "No. I'm just anti-asshole". With further reflection it's not even that, since my friends who would happily call themselves Capitalists are anything but. So I go back to what I think is the most incisive comment I've ever read about Capitalism since Marx, and it's by a psychologist and psychotherapist Adam Phillips, who says:

"Capitalism is for children"

I hope we are able to read that in a non-threatening and non-judgemental way just for a moment. For children?

Capitalism

Having children really changes your perspective on life. You get to see, rather than experience, the transition from helplessness to earned security and self-dependency. Becoming "responsible" rather than being a jangling bag of nerves, confused and dependent, with no patience or situational awareness of time or space, is an epic milestone. Some of us take longer to get there. Not all of us get there.

We find, perhaps not by accident, that the kind of technology capitalism begets and the influence of that technology on culture, does feel a little bit like that of a child. As climate change is forcing us to confront that and rapidly grow-up with respect to energy tech, I think smartphones, AI and social media are similarly provoking a crisis of maturity around communications technology.

technology and capitalism

Thinking about our responsibilities is an escape from the frustration of childhood. We have to face, viz Sartre, the burden of condemnation to be free. Free to make anything and everything we like of digital technology, including all that we mustn't. Or in Snowden's words, "Just because we can, doesn't mean we should". Peter-Pan Capitalism, and its lust for ubiquity, immediacy, omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience, absolute safety and unqualified freedom, will not serve us in navigating a world we've furnished with adult technology like atom bombs, AI and mind control networks.

tyranny

And since digital technology is built by we the people a more mature relation with it might also adjust our relation to needs and resources, government, intelligence, the law, police, health, education, religion and all the other things we need other than a facsimile of social-connection and entertainment.

For those opposing tyranny and ignorance it may provide us with weapons we had never dreamed of in the fight against corrupt and lazy creeds like "surveillance capitalism" which trades in our dignity, and corporate "enshitification" that preys on our gullibility.

ignorance

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Approaching 10,000 Articles/Pages Since Going Static
Trying to silence or derail the site was always a dumb strategy
Microsoft is Shedding Off Loads of Staff and That Can be Dangerous Too
Working for Microsoft is a choice; nobody forces you to do it
Richard Stallman and the Unix Philosophy
When asked about systemd people must remember that RMS speaks as an active Board member of the FSF and also the founder of the FSF
Get Rid of Back Doors, Don't Obsess Over Bounties and Other Corporate PR Stunts (or Needless Reboot Rituals)
Security as a term has mostly lost its meaning due to repeated misuse for many years
Serial Sloppers Are Killing the Web (They Probably Don't Care, Either)
Slop is a disease on the Web
IBM's Debt Ballooned by 8.5 Billion Dollars in Just 3 Months!
Hallmark of a company in a state of disarray, trying to spend its way out of trouble
Big Trouble in GNOME
even GNOME people admit the CoC went wrong
 
Links 25/04/2025: Slop Fatigue and Patent Judges Flocking to Fake, Unconstitutional and Illegal Kangaroo Court (UPC, Captured 'Justice')
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/04/2025: Night Manager and Devuan in Hosting
Links for the day
Windows Falls to New Lows in Nicaragua, Now Below a Quarter (It Used to be Almost 100%)
Another all-time low for Windows
The Cost (to Linux) of LLM Slop
Slop 'artists' like Fagioli are far from harmless
Links 25/04/2025: Ubisoft Spyware, Hegseth Fails at Tech on Every Level
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/04/2025: Food Forest Update and Facebook Destroying the Net
Links for the day
Streaming Apps Are “Investor Fraud” That Kills the Planet
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Things Get Increasingly Nasty at Microsoft Ahead of the Fake Results and May's Mass Layoffs Wave
They try to get people to 'resign' so that they won't count as layoffs and the company's 'wellbeing' will seem better
Slopping the Trough: Disney Plus Loses Billions and the Decline of Physical Media in America
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 24, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 24, 2025
Links 24/04/2025: GAFAM Problems and No Peace (or Ceasefire) in Sight
Links for the day
Slopfarms on the Web Almost Always Generate Anti-Linux FUD When They Produce "Linux" Output
Welcome to the dying Web
Richard Stallman's Oxford Talk Has Just Ended, Here Are Some Photos
he might hop over to another European country
Gemini Links 24/04/2025: Birthday and Good Work of Academia in Esotericism
Links for the day
Links 24/04/2025: EU fines Apple and Facebook, Another Microsoft GitHub Security Blunder
Links for the day
New Article Explains How the GPL Came About and WordPress Having Copyleft Obligations
Having been involved in the WordPress development community since almost the beginning, I know why it chose the GPL and how it restricts abuse by Automattic
IBM Gained Almost 6 Billion Dollars in "Goodwill" Value in Just 3 Months, According to IBM
Congrats to the management!
In Belarus, Yandex is Now Measured as 50 Times More 'Popular' (by Usage) Than Microsoft
Yandex continues to gain, whereas Bing cannot even register at 1%. Last month it was registered or measured at a measly 0.65%.
IBM Cannot Lie to Shareholders Anymore
"I would not be surprised if we see a layoff every quarter this year."
Dr Richard Stallman (RMS) Gives Talk in Oxford University in 4 Hours
If you live nearby, go there (it's free as in gratis)
Using a Law Firm's Licence to Exercise Politics Through Frivolous SLAPPs and Nastygrams (to Silence People, Remove Pages, Demand Fake or Forced 'Apologies')
Things must be getting really bad when lawyers act for raving antisemites
We're Working to Make Full-Site Search Available
This site has over 1,000 'wiki' pages, many thousands of documents, several thousands of videos, and about 50,000 blog posts or articles. We need to make them easier to find/navigate.
Links 24/04/2025: IBM Loses Many Contracts, Intel to Lay Off Over 20% (Not Counting Those Who Leave 'Voluntarily')
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Can Explain to Oxford Artificial Intelligence Society Why LLM Slop is Not Artificial Intelligence and Why It Hurts Society
another 'crop' of LLM slop that damages GNU/Linux and facts
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 23, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Promoting Microsoft and Proprietary Software Using Microsoft Operatives
Because nothing says "Open Source" like GPL violations facilitated by Microsoft
Another Site Bites the Dust: "Open Source For You" Becoming a Slopfarm (LLM Slop)
What a shame. Another dead site.
Links 23/04/2025: Crackdowns on Dissent, Palin Loses Libel Retrial Against New York Times
Links for the day
Links 23/04/2025: Hard Times and Digital Amnesia
Links for the day
The GNU/Linux Site Formerly Known as "linoxide.com" is Back... as an LLM Slopfarm!
Better for linoxide.com to go offline than to do this
Richard Stallman to Speak in Oxford University Exactly a Day From Now
outsourced to GAFAM
Links 23/04/2025: "Hiding Corruption" and "The Cost of Defunding Harvard"
Links for the day
Microsoft 'Studies' Again? Leon Musolff is Writing Papers With Microsoft.
Even if one can see/find a link to "the study" (in the Bezos-controlled publication), most people won't look any further and just take everything at face value.
Towards GNU World Domination
The FSF led by Geoffrey S. Knauth with his friend Richard Stallman in the FSF's Board [...] Let's encourage people to adopt GNU/Linux. There has never been a better time.
statCounter Helps Visualise Just How Deep in Trouble Microsoft is (Especially in Africa)
Microsoft sabotaged efforts to connect Africans and equip them with GNU/Linux laptops
The Register is Using Linux-Hostile Clickbait in Articles of Linux Proponents
Don't be a "whore" to advertisers, team El Reg
Microsoft Windows in Cyprus Lacking a Future
Most people access the Web there from mobile
Matrix Has a Severe Problem With Illegal Images
If Matrix cannot get the CP problem under control, many projects and people will dump Matrix
Never Try to Justify Strangulation of Women (Not in the US and Not in the UK)
Joint post by Mrs. Rianne Schestowitz and Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Links 23/04/2025: Tesla Profits Plunge 71%, Intel Ready to Lay Off 20% of Staff, Microsoft and IBM Layoffs
Links for the day
Microsoft's Most Profound Issue is That People Moved to 'Mobile' and "App Stores" (Microsoft's Presence There is Negligible)
Expect a wild ride for Microsoft this year
Google News is Amplifying FUD and Lies About Linux (and OpenSSH/SSH) by Promoting Slopfarms With Machine-Generated FUD and Slop Images
Google should know better
Gemini Links 23/04/2025: Librarians, Anubis, and Refactoring a Gemini Capsule
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 22, 2025