Found on WIRED…
Category Archives: Politics
AI and the Future: Why Technology Favors Tyranny
On piqd.de I found once again an interesting Article: Why Technology Favors Tyranny. The Abstract on piqd is in German, while the original article is in English.
The internet started out to bring us all more democracy and all people the ability to participate. In the last years it looks like the big companies have taken over the power, but also the states (who complain about the big companies, and vice versa).
The technologies that emerged around the internet can only be developed and maintained with massive investment / money and evolved further. Individuals can’t really do that much themselves, and are going back to being consumers and are dependent on what is provided to them. Who has the power, has the say, and that also allows tyrants to gain more power and control over people than ever before.
Is the right? It is at least an interesting viewpoint to think about and consider.
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think – Hans Rosling
On piqd I found an interesting article on faz.de, the title “Die Welt wird immer besser: 32 gute Nachrichten” (in German). Maybe I’m an optimist, although I don’t really think so, just realist, but I really liked this article.
It appears to me that some media really live from “bad news”, like bad-news are good-news. Sometimes it feels like you really have to search for good news articles. For me, those 32 good news, were actually known, but still I hardly remember them and when reading daily news, the optimism is minimal.
In essence, that articles is a short-summary from the book “Factfulness” by Hans Rosling, who unfortunately died in February 2017. His last book was published post mortem recently in April 2018.
It appears to me that this book is well worth reading… chapter after chapter, after digesting the daily news and reset opinion.
If you can’t read that article on faz.net (as its in German) or if the article or the book are too long, I would recommend to watch this TED-Talk which takes only about 19 minutes, during which Hans Rosling summarizes a few of the facts in a very interesting way.
Sir Charles Chaplin: (no) Dictator
On March 4th 1975 Charles Chaplin was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II (“Knight Commander of the British Empire“).
Although widely known as comic actor, I think his role as “The Great Dictator” is one of his best and the final speech is one of the most impressive scenes in film history.
In current times there are quite a number of people who should watch this and take it to their heard. Unfortunately I have little hope.
Schneier on Security: Metadata Equels Surveillance
In case you need to explain the topic to someone… Bruce Schneier just wrote an excellent short summary on why it is not “just meta-data”.
Schneier on Security: Metadata Equals Surveillance.
Thanks, Bruce. Last time I tried to explain it took 5 minutes and still wasn’t clear. Yes, it’s just so simple!