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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2015-02-11 09:10, William Fenn
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:000b01d04604$6e331780$4a994680$@verizon.net"
type="cite"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">I
wonder if “Big Brother” invested in the development of this
technology.</span></blockquote>
It's the law of unintended consequences playing out.<br>
<br>
Who owns your technology?<br>
<br>
If you want your technology to respond to speech, it must know how
to listen.<br>
If it knows how to listen then it do the listening for anyone who
controls it.<br>
If you don't own/control your technology then you don't control who
can listen.<br>
<br>
You have some choices to make:<br>
<br>
Do you give up the capability to avoid the unintended consequences?<br>
Do you create a technology you own so you regain control? (open
source, local processing, encryption)<br>
... or do you decide that it's better to have the ability even if
you do lose control.<br>
<br>
That last choice is easy enough -- drop a few dollars and the
magical device appears with almost no effort. It does magical things
at your command and you neither know nor care how it works after a
while -- it is good enough that it does work.<br>
<br>
But this is secretly a MUCH bigger issue --- hams are in the middle
of it because we are some of the last few who have the ability to
understand and even make our own technology. (Any sufficiently
advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.)<br>
<br>
The issue is this: We are evolving to a world where only a handful
of powerful corporations with only a handful of individuals have any
idea how technology works and only those few powerful beings will
have any hope of controlling the future.<br>
<br>
For the rest of the population, you either pledge allegiance to one
of the overlords and by doing so give up control of your privacy and
your access to the greater world... or you decide to live outside of
that world with only the simplest of tools at your disposal and no
real voice in the larger world.<br>
<br>
This is why we see more and more that companies are willing to give
away the technology if you are willing to "sign up" for their
service... Once you do that, they own you -- your data, your voice,
everything. The technology itself is incidental to them and you have
almost no alternative but to get that technology from them -- and
they like it that way -- because your life is more valuable than the
cost of the device -- and once they own your life they can sell it
over and over again.<br>
<br>
It sounds a bit fantastic, but take a look at it from the world of
fantasy --- a world full of powerful sorcerers who hand out magical
powers only to their loyal subjects. Absolute obedience is
required... and ONLY the sorcerers themselves have the power to
bestow these magical abilities. <br>
<br>
Such knowledge is unknown to "mortals" and any who try to attain it
are quickly thwarted (too complicated, too physically difficult
(tiny surface mount components, proprietary manufacturing), too
resources intensive (not everyone has a reflow oven), too
inaccessible (you can't purchase those parts or view the technical
documentation without purchasing a license and signing an NDA); or
they are destroyed (copyright and patents prevent any serious
competition or innovation outside of the sorcerers domain - every
idea has been covered by some patent portfolio so as soon as you do
anything worthwhile you WILL be sued into oblivion (or maybe
presented with an offer you can't refuse). This is true even if the
patent is invalid because the sorcerers guards (lawyers) are much
more powerful than you are and your puny self would whither in their
gaze long before you could speak the truth with any effect). <br>
<br>
The worst punishment by far is banishment -- because it means almost
certain death. All of the resources are locked up -- owned by the
sorcerers and only their loyal subjects are allowed to access them,
so banishment means starvation, exposure, and exile into a hostile
world bereft of hope.<br>
<br>
Most of the time the kingdom's subjects are happy enough giving
their lives to the sorcerers ("Welcome to the Verizon store!")...
and they don't mind that they have no alternatives because they are
not free to speak of such things lest they become discontented (and
bore the hell out of whomever they are talking to), and if they do
then they have no reasonable means to change things anyway so those
who try quickly wear themselves out or slowly go mad and forget they
ever cared.<br>
<br>
That's where we are headed unless we keep technology open and keep
the secrets of the sorcerers public knowledge. We must educate,
encourage, and enlist everyone we can to join us... to know the
magic and spread the knowledge so that it cannot become the secret
domain of all-powerful beings.<br>
<br>
Technology has been part of humanity since the first stone knife and
the first camp fire. <br>
It belongs to all of us. Let us not abandon our heritage and enslave
ourselves in the process.<br>
<br>
</rant><br>
<br>
_M<br>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
kf4hcw
Pete McNeil
lifeatwarp9.com/kf4hcw</pre>
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