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everything is evil | |
June 01st, 2019 | |
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There's a link on tilde.news [0] to a blog post by Nolan Lawson on | |
"Tech Veganism" [1]. It is, in his summary: | |
- a preference for open-source software over proprietary software | |
- a suspicion of big tech companies | |
- a high bar for privacy and security | |
[0] tilde.news | |
[1] Tech Veganism | |
My initial reaction was a visceral gagging at the name. I readied | |
my angriest typing fingers and opened up the lobste.rs style | |
comments ready to dive in as soon as I consumed this article. | |
I opened it up, clicked on my Stutter [2] icon and binged it in | |
a minute. | |
[2] Stutter | |
What came out deflated me. He argues some good points early on in | |
the ways that the behavior of open source purists, security | |
experts, and digital conspiracy theorists comes across to others | |
in the same ways as veganism (or crossfit). And, while the article | |
loses some focus toward the end, it did a decent job of what it | |
set out to do. | |
It got me thinking about the whole situation from a different | |
perspective. For a moment I was running in place like Fred | |
Flinstone [3] trying to snap an argument into place so I could | |
fill in that comment box, but eventually I gave up. | |
[3] Flinstones Running | |
Instead, I imagined the mid-century world with its post-war | |
optimism and renewed sense of manifest destiny in the United | |
States. In place of a territorial expansion it was an expansion of | |
the confidence of indifatigable America and its moral democracy | |
and powerful innovation. You can feel it in the pride of the | |
newsreels. The awe capped off with a man standing on the moon. | |
Progress is perfect. Capitalism and the democratic republic, | |
combined with the "cowboy" ideal and puritan ethics is the | |
ultimate way forward. Every child will have a better life than | |
their parent and the world will grow in all things exponentially. | |
And so with the invincible self-confidence of a teenage boy on | |
a half-pipe, America jumped head first. Its power on the world | |
stage was unequaled militarily and in terms of media. Regulation | |
and timidity took a back seat and we all went barrelling down the | |
ramp. | |
But the mid-century sci-fi authors taught us something else. It | |
lingered in their messages, only to hit main stream pop culture | |
years later. We saw the danger of machines, of a runaway state, of | |
unchecked power, of the masses deciding for all. Literature, | |
comics, art, they put a spotlight on all aspects of life, not just | |
the "big dream" of a nation. They help us see the cracks. Even | |
post-war, things were not perfect by any means, as those who | |
suffered outrageous oppression (and still do) can attest. They | |
were not part of that narrative. Unchecked capitalism devours | |
everything it touches, and so it did to the American economy in | |
the 70s. The counter-culture of disco, an attempt at glamour in | |
the squalid realities of life, is art screaming for help. | |
Here we are three quarters of a century on from that ridiculous | |
vision of a country who can do no wrong. We see those ideals | |
spread far, far beyond the US boundaries. The ideas themselves are | |
an identity for many, disconnected from their birthplace. Even now | |
we hear the same tripe of trickle-down economics cross the lips of | |
idiots. Even now we have those who believe in their hearts that | |
technology will save us from ourselves, as if innovation could | |
ever outpace hubris. | |
That was the daydream of thoughts that overtook me from this | |
little article on tech veganism. And with that lense I look again | |
and see something different. I don't see angry white men sitting | |
at their computers bitching about Google spying on them. I see | |
people who are walking with the rest of the world across | |
a landscape of ease and luxury, but have stumbled and looked down | |
and realized what we're crushing under our feet with each step. | |
Progress isn't perfect. | |
Everything we do has the infinite consequences that come from | |
being a part of this insane system of reality, a piece of humanity | |
as a whole, and a spec of unique life in the midst of a biosphere | |
hugging an oblique spheriod tumbling through the vacuum of space | |
like mildew around a shower handle. Everything about us is messy, | |
gross, and complex. It's hard enough to change something | |
intentionally for the good without unintended consequences | |
crushing your idea of progress. And it is so much easier to do | |
immesurable damage to our world and ourselves with the reckless | |
abandon of innovation for its own sake (or worse, for money). | |
I think back to the optimism of the space age and the pulp view of | |
"good" that it represents. It is not an objective reality, but it | |
had a presence and an effect at the time. In that way it was | |
"real". Today our tech advancements promise us pleasure and ease | |
and luxury at the cost of data, access, information, exposure, and | |
all the other little things that seem intangible and "no big deal" | |
in marketing-speak. Many, many people will take that deal. Why | |
not? Why pay for TV when you can sit through ads and let the | |
company know what you like. You'll just get better targeted ads. | |
Where's the harm? Right? | |
Where the dewey-eyed comic view of the 40s and 50s had eyes on | |
shiny rockets and travels to the moon, these days we know the | |
ineffible terror of an all-powerful algorithm, a machine | |
intelligence, churning numbers about each of us and uncovering | |
secrets we didn't know we had. We know governments use these for | |
their own aims, often against the individual. We know hackers can | |
exploit this. We know that advertisers care about money, not what | |
we want to see. We know that consumerism will push us toward | |
a place where we spend every dollar and borrow more to spend | |
ourselves into debt. We know that the world will enslave us in | |
a thousand ways to keep power with those in power. | |
We know, in effect, that the whole world is driven by evil | |
intentions. Evil in selfishness and in dehumanization and in the | |
lack of concern for future generations, environment, and the world | |
in general. | |
Everything is evil. | |
It might not be objective reality, but it has a presence and | |
effect on everything. In that way it is our "reality". It's almost | |
enough to make me accept the vegan label without cringing. Almost. |