The topic of the day is surveillance.
The POTUS spoke Friday about wide-sweeping “changes” he ordered to make NSA programs [presumably] better. If you read the comments accompanying speech coverage, few Americans seem to be drinking the Kool-Aid.
It’s not much better in Europe. Take for example, this comment from Andy Gunn, who lives in Belfast, Ireland:
This is beyond political reforms. The nsa and gchq should be dismantled by the people. Their equipment destroyed and employees stripped of citizenship. Its too expensive, totalitarian and is completly useless against any terror network in the twenty first century it is a con to generate money for equipment suppliers and have a toghter [SIC] control on populace. If survelience [SIC] is needed then it should be done alongside traditional policing.
We disagree. Infrastructure the NSA and other agencies around the world use will be immensely valuable in a post-scarcity Copiosis economy. Not for surveillance and battling terrorism, but for helping make human civilization much better than it is today.
Technology has finally advanced sufficiently for humanity to make science fiction stories leap off the page and become our reality. Our team has created a way for humanity to transition from our current reality to a better reality in short order. We see technologies the NSA and other agencies use as critical to human civilization. That includes technologies begin developed by large public companies such as Google, Apple and others. Repurposed in full transparency, openness and something we call coopetition, these technologies can do things we thought impossible before. It should not be destroyed.
The thing about life in this universe is it’s connectedness. Even the worst-seeming act carries in it the seeds for new life opportunities. This is no where better canonized than in humanity’s mythological phoenix. In Greek mythology, a phoenix is a long-lived bird that is cyclically regenerated or reborn. A phoenix obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor.
The phoenix represents in mythological form the actual nature of life itself. Life is not a series of disconnected forms. It is a long and connected string of events that have no beginning and no end. Societies are part of this life web. Indeed our every action is. As they come and go, societies don’t just end one second, then POOF! a new full-blown society appears. New ones evolve out of old ones. Crappy societies are the fodder from which better ones grow. While our current societies feel terrible for the most of us, they are by far better than they were.
And they will get better. How will that happen? Through the gradual, gentle and peaceful transition from the status quo, to the next thing. Over the eons, this progression from one type of society to the next has generally occurred at the hands of the powerful. The plutocrats, kings, warlords.
No longer.
We are seeing a shift in not only the way societies emerge, but also in who causes them to come about. It is a critical time in our human history. No longer do the 99 percent have to follow the rules of the 1 percent. For once, we can all play a constructive role. Together.
Our team is working on making our innovation that next civilization. Copiosis offers more freedom, more opportunity, more wealth to more people than any other system imagined or experienced by humanity thus far. It does this in ways that far exceed our abilities today, or anytime before. Even so, transitioning to this new and exciting future doesn’t require a dramatic end to the status quo. We don’t need to dismantle current technologies, throw out equipment or strip people of citizenship. It especially does not require stripping the 1 percent of their riches and distributing that wealth to others.
What it does require is repurposing people in positions that will become obsolete at the transition. It requires repurposing technologies used against the people so it works for the people. It requires that the vast majority of us – including those you think are on the wrong side of the fight – to join hands and work together. It therefore also calls for a truth and reconciliation process to air grievances, acknowledge wrong-doing and candidly, honestly ask for forgiveness. Then it requires us moving forward.
Never before have we had the opportunity that lies before us as a global society. An opportunity to right all the injustices, an opportunity to clean the environment, an opportunity to end homelessness, most crime, unemployment, and unleash beneficial technologies and other transformations that have been sequestered due to a system inhibiting innovation, cooperation and human progress.
Humanity is the phoenix. We are dying and we’re taking the planet with us. It is time to be reborn.
As a citizen of the USA I believe that all our high level intelligence should be used to watch everyone the globe over including us. I believe high level intel should be used to search , gather and share information as forensics on all criminal activities. Cameras should be everywhere in public and satellites the same. People should be chipped for health and location. Big brother is here. Let’s shake his hand. If your honest what do you have to hide!
We’re mostly in agreement. Those, who like you, feel “if you’re honest what do you have to hide?” want privacy because some things they may do represents a social taboo, even though it may not harm others. Certain sexual practices, for example. Or perhaps they’re racist (but not harming anyone). Or maybe they have a certain ritualistic practice they think people would harshly judge them for. Still, we agree. Big brother is here. And it can be an enormous net benefit value generator. So let’s put it to work!