03 September 2024
The Virtual World -- the Internet -- is its own thing. In its current manifestation, it is entirely binary. Most humans currently using the Net prefer to think binary. It's either on or off, there or not there. It's not that we actually are binary, but western culture tends to simplify everything to fit that paradigm. Westerners imagine that they are operating in binary mode.
Thus, despite the heavy load of moral valuation people invest in things on the Net, the Net itself is utterly lacking in a moral component. It is simply either on or off, there or not there. The Net is not even a language, but a communication protocol (like voice versus signs). Nor should you imagine it's a stream of content. No, everything on the Net is packets, and each packet has seven layers. You cannot "pollute the stream" with evil packets. If the packet is damaged, it simply doesn't go anywhere; it's dropped. But the content is of no consequence in whether it gets routed forward to its destination.
Individual packets often don't mean much in isolation. The data is assembled at at the other end. Neither the machines on either end, nor all the machines in the middle, care a whit what is in the packets. It's the human users who care. Only with serious programming effort can the packets be inspected, when copies are captured along the way. The software is invested with binary reasoning to identify things to which some people object. This is why even mild encryption so infuriates government officials, because it works very well to keep them from making sense of the packets.
Eventually, AI will help these people process more packets more quickly, and do a much better job of identifying what's in the packets. But in the long run, actually doing anything about what the AI finds still requires people to go somewhere in physical space and do something. Thus, the game is a matter of how much of their attention you get. I've gotten a small amount of federal attention merely because of what I've posted on blogs.
I can affirm that the alias I use here is forbidden on a lot of "free" Internet services. The feds know my real identity, of course. So, they also set hindrances wherever that can be automated. There are a couple of federal services I cannot use because they have flagged my ID, and it requires using an ID recognition system to use the service. They pretend they can't read the photos of my ID, but third parties had no trouble with those images. It's petty, but it's a start. Those services can get away with it because nobody will inspect their work. Other federal services still work, because they are systems for which it is far harder to implement blocking without provoking attention from Congress and Courts -- think 2nd Amendment disputes, or something similar.
That's the game of balance we play. The various balancing points are dynamic over time. Barring some Congressional white knights, more and more things will become difficult for dissenters like me. But I was committed to this before the Net existed, so their antics won't change what I do. The Net is simply the best opportunity I've had to rub their noses in it.
Since the 1990s, I've gotten their attention a few times when they had more people versus the number of dissenters on the Net. I've embarrassed them at least once when they came to see me. Now, the number of dissenters is far more numerous, and their growth hasn't kept up. They aren't likely to send anyone to see me anytime soon. The whole point is not to provoke the government, but to write what my convictions demand while knowing it will provoke.
What I do watch out for is the ways in which AI of various grades can get in the way of my mission. I keep track of how to get around the hindrances. If your convictions lead you in the same direction, let's talk about the means.
Meanwhile, the mission is simply to offer my blather to anyone who might be interested. To those who commit to engaging me in other ways, we establish a connection that may some day be severed, should the government succeed in its plans. As the Net gets more and more restricted, you have to decide whether the stuff I have to say is worth the trouble. We'll be talking about what "trouble" means in that sense.
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