From The Snowden, Poitras, Greenwald AMA On Reddit
From the Snowden, Poitras, Greenwald AMA on reddit
SuddenlySnowden EDWARD SNOWDEN 3499 points 2 hours ago*
"What's the best way to make NSA spying an issue in the 2016 Presidential Election? It seems like while it was a big deal in 2013, ISIS and other events have put it on the back burner for now in the media and general public. What are your ideas for how to bring it back to the forefront?" (masondog13)
Snowden's reply:
"This is a good question, and there are some good traditional answers here. Organizing is important. Activism is important.
At the same time, we should remember that governments don't often reform themselves. One of the arguments in a book I read recently (Bruce Schneier, "Data and Goliath"), is that perfect enforcement of the law sounds like a good thing, but that may not always be the case. The end of crime sounds pretty compelling, right, so how can that be?
Well, when we look back on history, the progress of Western civilization and human rights is actually founded on the violation of law. America was of course born out of a violent revolution that was an outrageous treason against the crown and established order of the day. History shows that the righting of historical wrongs is often born from acts of unrepentant criminality. Slavery. The protection of persecuted Jews.
But even on less extremist topics, we can find similar examples. How about the prohibition of alcohol? Gay marriage? Marijuana?
Where would we be today if the government, enjoying powers of perfect surveillance and enforcement, had -- entirely within the law -- rounded up, imprisoned, and shamed all of these lawbreakers?
Ultimately, if people lose their willingness to recognize that there are times in our history when legality becomes distinct from morality, we aren't just ceding control of our rights to government, but our agency in determing thour futures.
How does this relate to politics? Well, I suspect that governments today are more concerned with the loss of their ability to control and regulate the behavior of their citizens than they are with their citizens' discontent.
How do we make that work for us? We can devise means, through the application and sophistication of science, to remind governments that if they will not be responsible stewards of our rights, we the people will implement systems that provide for a means of not just enforcing our rights, but removing from governments the ability to interfere with those rights.
You can see the beginnings of this dynamic today in the statements of government officials complaining about the adoption of encryption by major technology providers. The idea here isn't to fling ourselves into anarchy and do away with government, but to remind the government that there must always be a balance of power between the governing and the governed, and that as the progress of science increasingly empowers communities and individuals, there will be more and more areas of our lives where -- if government insists on behaving poorly and with a callous disregard for the citizen -- we can find ways to reduce or remove their powers on a new -- and permanent -- basis.
Our rights are not granted by governments. They are inherent to our nature. But it's entirely the opposite for governments: their privileges are precisely equal to only those which we suffer them to enjoy.
We haven't had to think about that much in the last few decades because quality of life has been increasing across almost all measures in a significant way, and that has led to a comfortable complacency. But here and there throughout history, we'll occasionally come across these periods where governments think more about what they "can" do rather than what they "should" do, and what is lawful will become increasingly distinct from what is moral.
In such times, we'd do well to remember that at the end of the day, the law doesn't defend us; we defend the law. And when it becomes contrary to our morals, we have both the right and the responsibility to rebalance it toward just ends."
More Posts from Krillion and Others
awesome convo
Conversation with Chris Hadfield and Randall Munroe
May the 4th Be With You
My Star Wars Flipboard
“I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of 100,000 miles their outlook could be fundamentally changed. That all-important border would be invisible, that noisy argument silenced. The tiny globe would continue to turn, serenely ignoring its subdivisions, presenting a unified façade that would cry out for unified understanding, for homogeneous treatment. The earth must become as it appears: blue and white, not capitalist or Communist; blue and white, not rich or poor; blue and white, not envious or envied.” — Michael Collins, Gemini 10 & Apollo 11 astronaut More astronaut quotes on seeing planet Earth from space: http://www.spacequotations.com/earth.html
Creativity, Technology/Robots/Jobs, Futurism
Links discussed/related to a couple of conversations this week about the purpose of education and what is your purpose in life....
Creativity....
Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking and Arthur C. Clarke - God, The Universe and Everything Else (1988) [52:10]
A couple of clips from this excellent video, an hour well spent… Big questions and Curiosity Science, Politics, and Skepticism Creativity
Is Stifling Creativity in the Classroom Preventing Future Problem Solvers?
Excerpts: "Dr. Mae C. Jemison, an American physician and NASA astronaut, correctly noted that the “majority of scientists say they developed their passion for science by age 11. That means that the educational experience children have in grade school profoundly impacts our nation’s ability to graduate a prepared STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] work force.”"
"Look at any truly stunning innovation and you’ll find creativity at play. Inspiring our students to think creatively while being trained in a specific discipline is vital for our country’s growth and development. But here is the sobering reality: according to researchers, scores on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (the standard test used to measure creativity, akin to IQ tests for measuring intelligence) have been declining in the U.S. during the past two decades, with the most significant decline among kindergartners through sixth graders. This leads to a fundamental question: Is our education system stifling creativity in today’s children, preventing them from becoming the world’s future creative problem solvers?
Some argue that the decline in creativity may be caused by excess media consumption, because students are spending countless hours interacting with smart phones, video games and television. Others may argue standardized testing or other root causes. However, a fundamental fact remains: most children spend the majority of their day in a highly structure, perhaps overly ridged learning environment. How are we supporting teachers and equipping classrooms in the battle to preserve the child’s inherent and natural curiosity?" MORE LINKS 18 Things Highly Creative People Do Differently TED Playlist: Where do ideas come from IN THE AIR New Yorker (Gladwell)
Technology, robots, and jobs...
10 Rad Jobs of the Future Infographic
Will Technology Make Work Better for Everyone? Slate
Here Comes The Future Of Education. Are We Ready? Mitch Joel Robots Are Already Replacing Us Wired (I like page 11) Better Than Human: Why Robots Will — And Must — Take Our Jobs Kevin Kelly, Wired Excerpts: "Robots create jobs that we did not even know we wanted done." "When robots and automation do our most basic work, making it relatively easy for us to be fed, clothed, and sheltered, then we are free to ask, “What are humans for?” Industrialization did more than just extend the average human lifespan. It led a greater percentage of the population to decide that humans were meant to be ballerinas, full-time musicians, mathematicians, athletes, fashion designers, yoga masters, fan-fiction authors, and folks with one-of-a kind titles on their business cards. With the help of our machines, we could take up these roles; but of course, over time, the machines will do these as well. We’ll then be empowered to dream up yet more answers to the question “What should we do?” It will be many generations before a robot can answer that." (also see Kevin Kelly's TED talk: The next 5,000 days of the web?)
The long view...
Have you seen Jason Silva's latest 'Shots of Awe' video? JASON SILVA’S LATEST: TO BE HUMAN IS TO BE TRANSHUMAN
The next species of human Juan Enriquez TED Talk I'm planning to give a talk on transhumanism (more than just Kurzweil's ideas on the singularity) next semester....
Still, Texas and Arizona show us sales go on when Tesla dealers are “banned.”
This one made my jaw drop, seriously????
Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.
Arthur C. Clarke
Some of what I come across on the web... Also check out my Content & Curation site: kristentreglia.com
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