Degrees of Freedom
V-CHIP CONTENT WARNING: THIS POST IS RATED: R, V, NPC, RI, S, I13. [For processing by the required-by-1998 V-chips, those reading this post from an archive must set their V-chip to "42-0666." I will not be held responsible for posts incorrectly filtered-out by a V-chip that has been by-passed, hot-chipped, or incorrectly programmed.] ***WARNING!*** It has become necessary to warn potential readers of my messages before they proceed further. This warning may not fully protect me against criminal or civil proceedings, but it may be treated as a positive attempt to obey the various and increasing numbers of laws. * Under the ***TELECOM ACT OF 1996***, minor CHILDREN (under the age of 18) may not read or handle this message under any circumstances. If you are under 18, delete this message NOW. Also, if you are developmentally disabled, irony-impaired, emotionally traumatized, schizophrenic, suffering PMS, affected by Humor Deprivation Syndrom (HDS), or under the care of a doctor, then the TELECOM ACT OF 1996 may apply to you as well, even if you are 18. If you fall into one of these categories and are not considered competent to judge for yourself what you are reading, DELETE this message NOW. * Under the UTAH PROTECTION OF CHILDREN ACT OF 1996, those under the age of 21 may not read this post. All residents of Utah, and Mormons elsewhere, must install the M-Chip. * Under the PROTECTION OF THE REICH laws, residents of Germany may not read this post. * Under the MERCIFUL SHIELD OF ALLAH (Praise be to Him!) holy interpretations of the Koran of the following countries (but not limited to this list) you may not read this post if you are a FEMALE OF ANY AGE: Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, Libya, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Algeria, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Yemen, Oman, Syria, Bahrain, and the Palestinian Authority. Non-female persons may also be barred from reading this post, depending on the settings of your I-Chip. * Under the proposed CHINESE INTERNET laws, covering The People's Republic of China, Formosa, Hong Kong, Macao, Malaysia, and parts of several surrrounding territories, the rules are so nebulous and unspecified that I cannot say whether you are allowed to read this. Thus, you must SUBMIT any post you wish to read to your local authorities for further filtering. * In Singapore, merely be RECEIVING this post you have violated the will of Lee Kwan Yu. Report to your local police office to receive your caning. * Finally, if you are barrred from contact with the Internet, or protected by court order from being disturbed by thoughts which may disturb you, or covered by protective orders, it is up to you to adjust the settings of your V-Chip to ensure that my post does not reach you. *** THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE IN COMPLYING WITH THESE LAWS *** At 5:27 PM 2/8/96, Alex Strasheim wrote:
A split between a Western net and a Chineese net would have important political, cultural, and economic reprecussions; it could be the cyberspatial version of the old iron curtain, with information policy rather than economic policy as a dividing line.
Given the massive number of "degrees of freedom" compared to earlier days when the Iron Curtain "sort of" worked, albeit with lots of leaks, I see little chance it can be pulled off. The Chinese want a Bamboo Curtain, the Muslims want a Veiled Curtain, the Jews want a Wailing Wall, and the Germans wanted barbed wire. It ain't gonna work.
We ought to speak out against this Chineese net, and start asking questions about Western companies that are collaborating in its construction.
The usual suspects: SAIC, Wackenhut, NewsCorp, etc. --Tim May [This Bible excerpt awaiting review under the Communications Decency Act] And then Lot said, "I have some mighty fine young virgin daughters. Why don't you boys just come on in and do em right here in my house - I'll just watch!"....Later, up in the mountains, the younger daughter said. "Dad's getting old. I say we should do him." So the two daughters got him drunk and did him all that night. Sure enough, Dad got em pregnant....Onan really hated the idea of doing his brother's wife and getting her pregnant while his brother got all the credit, so he whacked off first....Remember, it's not a good idea to have sex with your sister, your brother, your parents, your pet dog, or the farm animals. [excerpts from the Old Testament, Modern Vernacular Translation, TCM, 1996]
Tim May said:
The Chinese want a Bamboo Curtain, the Muslims want a Veiled Curtain, the Jews want a Wailing Wall, and the Germans wanted barbed wire. It ain't gonna work.
If you think in terms of content, you're right -- they all want different and contradictory things. But from another persepctive, they're all in agreement: they want to preserve their ability to censor and filter information and ideas, and they want to hold people accountable for writing and saying things which are forbidden. The headers I clipped off of Tim's post might not be as farfetched as they seem at first. What if they built a central storehouse of technical information that's accessible to all, transactional systems that facilitate international trade between member states, and left cultural and political content to the tyrants of the respective nations? Everyone's can grab mechanical engineering info, and evryone can buy shoes from China, but Islamic users will have to rely on Islamic sources for world news and political commentary. Differences in human languages are going to make the tyrants' job a lot easier -- how many Chineese speak Arabic? They won't have to monitor each piece of data to affix attributes for every petty jurisdiction. All they'll need is a core of bland utilitarian information that's open to all -- each country can produce and consume whatever information it sees fit domestically. And if everything is verified with state issued digital signatures, anyone who steps over the line can be imprisoned, tortured, or killed. Suppose I'm an electrical engineer in Iraq. I could have access to non-political technical information that might be generated in China, and I could buy chips produced in an Asian dictatorship online. I can post to technical groups, and what I write will be available to electrical engineers all over the world. I can post to religious/poltical groups, and what I write will only be available to those in the Islamic world. In both cases, my signature is affixed to whatever I write, and I can be held accountable. The rules for the forums are different -- I can't say anything about Islam in the electrical engineering group. If I do, I'll be punished. But the same content would be perfectly acceptable in another group that only goes out to the Islamic world. I don't disagree that eventually such a plan will fail. But centrally planned economies competing with market driven ones will eventually fail as well, and that didn't stop communism from casting a long dark shadow over the second half of the century. Is a laissez-faire response based on an extremely promising but still untested analysis (ie., crypto anarchy) prudent?
We ought to speak out against this Chineese net, and start asking questions about Western companies that are collaborating in its construction.
The usual suspects: SAIC, Wackenhut, NewsCorp, etc.
What about companies with better images? Like Sun, RSA, etc? (I seem to remember reading that Sun was selling some hardware -- but my memory isn't good, and I could very well be wrong.)
participants (2)
-
Alex Strasheim -
tcmay＠got.net