Andy Farnell on Standing Up Against Technological Oppression
Dr. Andy Farnell has a new Christmas message regarding technology and society. To quote some portions from it:
For most of us with the best of intentions, the spiritual equivalent of a seasonal fad diet, sobriety and fitness regime collapses mid-January. We revert to our shiny i-Things made in a Chinese child-labour camp, we buy more rubbish we don't need with money we don't have, and we dance merrily around in a jazz-handed squee, praising our "AI", social control media, mass surveillance and planet-wrecking junk tech. [...] As it stands the project of "AI" envisioned by Silicon Valley is toward Thanatos, the state of death and forgetfulness for humankind. That's evidenced in some comments Bregman received claiming "AI" can "take the friction out of… very difficult life." [...] Today it's getting hard to avoid clear scientific evidence that smartphones and Facebook-like distractions are corrosive to our social fabric and individual mental health. Nonetheless, self-righteous declension warnings are as pointless and irritating as they ever were.
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A few people have told me I inspired them to get off social media, or to ditch their always-on lifestyle in favour of a home desktop computer and flip-phone that they carry occasionally. Some of those people say they are better for it. But still over 90 percent of Brits are fully enslaved and addicted to their phones.
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The hard path usually feels like "giving something up";
- Giving up dating apps and porn as a way to pursue truly meaningful relations instead of easy sex.
- Giving up easy Big Tech for more demanding Freedom Software and community run systems.
- Giving up contactless cards and payment apps in favour of cash as a way to manage your spending and be more connected with your local economy.
- Giving up social media as a way to regain focus and purpose.
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My friend, a defence contractor, once became a "whistle-blower", raising the alarm about defective explosive initiation hardware that would have certainly lead to serving personnel losing their lives. The company did everything possible to shut him up and make it go away. Doing the right thing almost ended his career. Twenty years later as a respected chartered defence engineer he looks back with immense professional pride on that choice.
In my early academic career I stood up against misconduct and fraudulent research, for which I was fired. Later, the immorality of training foreign potential enemies as cybercriminals led me to resign on ethical principle. I quit another institution in protest at the domination and corruption by Big Tech which made teaching untenable. I regret none of those choices. Quite the contrary, they feel more and more the basis for pride in a well-lived life. But they cost me what would doubtless be a very comfortable and prestigious tenure in some fancy university by now.
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For the already privileged, making "moral revolution fashionable", as some philanthropist put it, is as easy as funding GPL based Free Software projects like GNU/Linux. The best way to stand up to Silicon Valley, Big Tech and all its grotesque immorality is not to directly confront it, or try to constrain, influence, regulate or rehabilitate it, but to directly fund its opponents at the grass roots level. Supplant Big Tech with alternatives the people control.
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Those of us fighting in the digital resistance, against technofascism, for software freedom and for civic cybersecurity, know that in the end we will win. We will win not by spectacles of confrontation but quiet acts of sacrifice, to choose 'lesser', better, different and safer technology, to reject imposed but unconscionable social norms that enslave us. We will defeat fascist politics cloaked in technical garments, because we are smarter and know more about technology than the enemy.
This article was published just 6 hours ago. I'm glad to see he says "social control media" (I coined that). █