Slashdot Mirror
Julian Assange Says Google's Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen Are "Witch Doctors"
An anonymous reader writes "The Times publishes Assange's takedown of Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen. From the article: 'New Digital Age is a startlingly clear and provocative blueprint for technocratic imperialism, from two of its leading witch doctors, Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen, who construct a new idiom for United States global power in the 21st century. This idiom reflects the ever closer union between the State Department and Silicon Valley, as personified by Mr. Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, and Mr. Cohen, a former adviser to Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton who is now director of Google Ideas.'"
at one time, assange did a good think with wikileaks in this world
now he's just an entertainment "news" story figure
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Is strong withing this one.
And Assange is a witch... Not sure where he is going with that analogy.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
I didn't know that they were also chiropractors!
i think he might just be right... the world has already lost its privacy to google
The summary makes it sound like Hillary Clinton is a Director at Google.
"Hillary Clinton who is now director of Google Ideas" - I tried to check I hadn't missed anything major, but this is just a case of bad editing???
A new “crop of consultants” will “use data to build and fine-tune a political figure.”
Wait, that's in the future? Wasn't that the 2008 election?
I stopped using google and any service provided by them a while back.
All of this was being expected from the start. "google is not evil".
He's a freak, and a paranoid treacherous loony
Treacherous? Nothing Assange has done constitutes treason. You're conflating Assange and Manning, shock amazement.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
In case it's not clear from the article, it's Assange doing a book review.
http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/1480542288
"“The Future of Terrorism” gets a whole chapter. The future of terrorism, we learn, is cyberterrorism. A session of indulgent scaremongering follows, including a breathless disaster-movie scenario, wherein cyberterrorists take control of American air-traffic control systems and send planes crashing into buildings"
Difficult to believe Schmidt put his name to that crap, there's no reason to open Air Traffic control to hackers.
"The section on “repressive autocracies” describes, disapprovingly, various repressive surveillance measures: legislation to insert back doors into software to enable spying on citizens, monitoring of social networks and the collection of intelligence on entire populations. All of these are already in widespread use in the United States. In fact, some of those measures — like the push to require every social-network profile to be linked to a real name — were spearheaded by Google itself. "
Yeh CALEA and CALEA II coming soon. American.
He pans the books.
He's a freak, and a paranoid treacherous loony who is desperately overdue for his date with karma. Why are you giving this hand-flapping, self-aggrandizing tosser airtime?
Cheap click bait?
A very elaborate point, i see. Do they pay you to spread hate and discredit at least?
"I definitely not a fan of Google.
And I most definitely NOT a fan of the US government.
Two of them got together and wrote a book? Whoa! *head starts throbbing*
WHOOOOAAAA!!! *thumbs uncontrollably through book*
This is SUCH...."
Treacherous. It's not a synonym for treasonous.
Correct. He's the treacherous foreign entity that is the subject for Manning's treason. It's two completely different things.
As opposed to David Tennent , Matt Smith, and now John Hurt who are Who Doctors...
Assange has an awful lot of very astute writing and work leading up to Wikileaks, technically he's no Jacob Appelbaum, but his philosophical writing nails it.
Wikileaks was based upon that philosophy and changed our world by starting this "leaking culture", certainly leaking existed long before, but social factors preventing it were more powerful. Assange created a framework proving that leaking often works where internal reforms fail.
Assange has obviously been driven a little batty by the U.S. government's pursuit via Sweden, U.K., etc., but historians will continue talking about Assange long after they've forgotten about Bush, Clinton, etc. Anyone who can actually push all the way from new philosophy to real political change is a certified genius.
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
Who cares what Julian Assange Says again? He may have had a hand in some events that I am glad took place, but some good leaks and a little rape does not make one an expert on anything.
No sigs in BETA. Beta SUCKS.
They're both Jews. Jews control all of the major internet services companies, all of the media, and the government.
Which-government?
Julian learnt a new word. "Idiom." Etymologically so close to another word that often appears in sentences with Julian's name.
That word... etymologically... it doesn't mean what you think it means.
Prove me wrong and write down the other word you alude
Why are you giving this hand-flapping, self-aggrandizing tosser airtime?
Because Batboy retired and John McAfee is on vacation this week.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The world has been screaming "technocratic imperialism" ever since ICANN and IANA were established. Every time a US government alphabet agency shows up in the news with a +"internet" search it's involved in messing with foreign powers' policies, intercepting Internet traffic, or forcefully arguing why the US's legal jurisdiction is global now thanks to the reach of ICANN/IANA. Indirectly, social media developed in the US is currently causing major turmoil for governments across the globe. Of course, this can all be politely attributed to people in countries with smaller R&D budgets with technology lagging behind that of the US.
Ever get the sinking feeling that the reason internet access in the US is lagging behind the rest of the world for very, very specific intelligence-related reasons? I think it's tinfoil hat time.
we can't be surprised when people in power want to attract other people in power. Sadly, it is how it goes, whether it is for the greater good or not.
He specifically said John Hurt NOT Doctor!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
"Idiot." Both derived from the common Greek idios (I'd put it in here in Greek, but /. hasn't discovered Unicode yet) meaning "of or pertaining to one's self." Hence the English terms "Idiom" meaning a figure of speech peculiar to a person or group of people and "Idiot" meaning (originally) someone whose behaviour is very peculiar to themselves, since developed to mean, well, idiot. You see? The have very similar etymology, making them etymologically similar. What did you think it meant?
Any more questions?
Slashdot - News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters, in ISO-8859-1 Has just realised that beta makes this signature redundant
My friend the Google search, it taught me what to say
My friend the Google search, it taught me what to do
It knew what I would buy when said what I liked, by typing:
Ooh, ee, ooh ah ah
Ting tang walla-walla bing bang
Ooh, ee, ooh ah ah
Ting tang walla-walla bing bang
I am officially gone from
that's right, manning is treasonous and the man who made his treason possible is totally innocent
this is such utter bullshit
wait, i'm being told by an anonymous white house source, who is speaking under condition of anonymity because it would be illegal for him to speak openly, that this isn't bullshit /bullshit
Whatever you think about Assange, you pretty much have to admit he does a splendid Emmanuel Goldstein impression! All that's missing is the two-minute government-sponsored Youtube video of hate. You can't even meet him in person anymore, he can only be reached through teles^Hphone and email!
How has Assange committed treachery, exactly?
He may not be on your side -- but he's not exactly betrayed the side he's on. That's treachery, and he's not committed it.
Hmmm... cherry picking and you may be right... this doesn't make it relevant though (but, again, this is not a strong requirement for a geek, is it now?).
Idiot etimology - idiotes ("person lacking professional skill", "a private citizen", "individual"), from (greek), idios ("private", "one's own").[1] In Latin the word idiota ("ordinary person, layman") preceded the Late Latin meaning "uneducated or ignorant person".[2] Its modern meaning and form dates back to Middle English around the year 1300, from the Old French idiote ("uneducated or ignorant person")
Idiom's ethimology - An idiom (Latin: idioma, "special property", f. Greek: – idioma, "special feature, special phrasing", f. Greek: – idios, "one’s own") is a combination of words that has a figurative meaning, due to its common usage.
After all, even kimono is rooted from greek
Julian Assange posts something in a desperate attempt to get Julian Assange back in the public eye.
I wasn't at all surprised to see Schmidt put his name to a book full of pro-authoritarian scaremongering, since he's been the leading purveyor of the "Do Evil" meme at Google in recent years. We've become accustomed to his every public pronouncement showing total disdain for people's rights or desire for protection from an ever more totalitarian machine.
Assange wraps up his review with a nice turn of phrase that sums up the whole situation and the book very poignantly:
Yes indeed.
USA consists of its people, not its government.
What Manning did was to reveal what the government did for the people, that is in no way treason.
All of the government. Except, presumably, the Arab ones. And even then, you can't be absolutely sure. It could all be just a conspiracy concocted to garner sympathy for them.
Or you know, this could be all tin foil hat stupidity and antisemitism.
Don't upset a witch doctor.
...."Ribbit"
Have gnu, will travel.
The article subtitle beat me to the Dave Seville joke...
Those that study history have no doubt how the ruling elite operate, or the methods they use to control the populace. It is today no different from how it was three thousand years ago. The psychology of those that find themselves 'in charge' is an assumption that they are "god's chosen". Even today, in the USA, more than 50% of senior US politicians state that 'god' has given them their power to rule over others.
Of course, the reality of the so-called ruling elites is one of being prepared to do whatever it takes to keep power, and wherever possible, to grow that power and pass it on to later generations of their same family/group. America, for instance, is on the verge of getting a second Clinton or a third Bush as supreme ruler.
How do you control the masses? How do you keep the mob on a leash? How do you persuade the populace, year after year, to dedicate their lives to enriching and empowering the same tiny minority?
-learn what the mob is thinking, in as close to real-time as possible
-find the best ways to manipulate the opinions of the mob, especially their long term beliefs and aspirations
-ensure the mob only ever hears control messages from the elites that rule them. Ensure the mob is trained to disregard messages from other sources
-give the mob 'bread and circuses'. Let the mob feel self-empowered by participation in useless trivial events like organised religion, organised team sports, and harmless forms of self expression
-exterminate or co-opt any emerging grass roots movements that could grown and threaten the power bases of the elites.
Only a complete fool would fail to understand where Google fits with the above goals. The dream of computerised intelligence gathering on the general population began before the age of the electronic computer. When 'electronic brains' first appeared, the elites were massively disappointed with the end results of unthinkably expensive attempts to use computers to spy on the populace. Perversely, the fiction of powerful computers doing incredible things spread like wild-fire through the consciousness of ordinary people in the 50s and 60s, but as we know the reality was far different.
The original Google project was predicated on the availability of vast amounts of cheap commodity hard-drive storage and processing power. It looked at the NSA desire to spy on the entire Human population from a very different POV. It also took account of the fact that official government IT projects (even when secret) would always fall prey to mega-corruption and complete-incompetence as a consequence. The psychology of successful IT ambitions was being made apparent by the incredible growth of the Internet.
Google gives people useful/entertaining/addicting toys like search, Youtube, Gmail and Android. Each of these toys monitors, and encourages users to provide ever greater amounts of information about themselves to monitor.
Google also provides the infrastructure (hardware and software models) that are used by the intelligence agencies of the 'West' to store and mine the information they gather. These are shadow-Google installations, built and run by people directly employed by intelligence agencies like the NSA, but based on current designs used by Google itself.
Google, as you should know, makes a lot of money from mining its data and using the results for advertising. What few of you realise is that this business is a deliberate side-effect of Google researching and developing mining algorithms for the NSA.
Today, when you vote Republican or Democrat in the USA, you get exactly the same mid/long term policies, and exactly the same program of rolling wars. In the UK, you can vote Labour, Liberal or Conservative, but still experience the exact agenda Tony Blair laid down for the UK when that monster first rose to visible power. The elites don't even have to bother maintaining even the illusion of a choice, largely thanks to Google.
The people that run Google think that they are superior to you, and therefore their will matters, and you will does not. I hate to tell you this, but the crud that desires to rule over others always has this attitude. And when you do nothing but lay down and accept the abuse, this abusive attitude grows exponentially.
How Assange's Spanish lessons are progressing.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
I saw this article in my news feed today, and found it difficult to get through. I wonder if anyone knows if it is a translation from Swedish (or whatever Assange's native language is). Many of the words in the article make no sense, given the context. For example, "idiom", which appears in the Slashdot summary. I don't think that word means what he (or the translator) thinks it means. I think what they're looking for is, perhaps, "paradigm".
Anyway, this is either a bad translation, or the ramblings of a madman.
Proverbs 21:19
Except he's talking up cyber terrorism as the future of terrorism, when its not. Boston showed that.
Is the future of tickling, cyber-tickling? Is the future of stomach punching, cyber stomach punching? Cyber kissing?
The ability to cause REAL WORLD damage is two steps harder if you add a first step of 'hack control system', 'make physical device override safeguards'. It's always easier to make real world damage if you do it in the real world.
So you've broken into the physical network, you've taken over the air traffic control, you've diverted the plane into the mountain.... how do you make the airplane radar not flash all those warnings, how do you make the pilot blind so he doesn't see the mountain???... Implausible scenarios, a Hollywood fiction.
So yeh, I'm surprised Schmidt put his name to that garbage, terrorists will always go for the easy terror, not the Rube-Goldberg terror machines involving networks and hacking.
He has not been convicted of any crime. He has not even been CHARGED with any crime.
The Arrest Warrent was intended to be filed by the judge of the country that wanted the person arrested and transferred, however THIS one was writen by the prosecutor and, by oversight because nobody thought an ARREST warrent would be asked for before someone WAS BEING ARRESTED for something, it wasn't against the rules as written.
The High Court investigation into the EAW was ONLY to determine if the warrant was valid. NOT whether the claims or case was valid.
Yet people trying like hell to pin rape on JA insist that the UK court agreed that he needs to face questioning.
Then IN THE SAME BREATH complain that he's not being arrested, and then he IS under arrest.
Insanity circle from the wingnuts out to get WikiLeaks by means fair or foul.
"the man who made his treason possible is totally innocent"
Participating in the creation of, and serving as the spokesman for Wikileaks does not make treason "possible". By that reasoning, the existence of ANY mass media is an enabler of treason.
It's clear that Manning released information that the U.S. government considered secret and thus violated the law. Whether or not the release of documents that are "secret" constitutes "treason" is a subjective conclusion.
The government/military has few legitimate "secrets"
I think the government considers anything that exposes their lies and crimes as "secret". Informing the American people of government malfeasance should be considered "patriotism", even if releasing the info was technically a crime.
Who else would be brave enough to take on the American and Euro spooks and hope to get away with it? At least he stil has a bit of a life left, though highly restricted.
Julian has been involved in showing EVERYONE that the USA isn't the best and brightest and loveliest people in the world, the Leaders of the Free World as they claim.
That Wikileaks produce copious amounts of information from all across the globe is continually and habitually ignored, so that the claim can be asserted, sans proof or thought, that WL and JA specifically is a USA hater.
This is so that those who have evidence of their countries' culpability in bad actions can ignore those and instead complain about anyone and everyone else.
Is that air traffic control doesn't actually control planes, pilots (and autopilots) do. ATC just gives them directions. However it turns out the pilots have eyes and can notice things like, say, a building. They don't just blindly steer their aircraft by the directions over the radio. So, even if hackers manages to hack the ATC system (which seems rather unlikely to anyone who's seen it), and even if they got the ground controllers to give out bad directions (remember it is humans giving out info on the radio), they aren't going to get pilots to blindly follow it.
Indeed if you talk to pilots you find out that most of them have received incorrect instructions on occasion, and have dealt with the situation without problems.
The authors offer an expertly banalized version of tomorrow's world: the gadgetry of decades hence is predicted to be much like what we have right now -- only cooler.
He's right about that. Schmidt's vision of the future is indeed banal. People still wear suits, go to offices, and make presentations. But they get there in self-driving cars and the presentation technology is better. That's the "vision" in his book. It's rather 1950s.
Are Schmidt and Cohen drinking their own Kool-Aid?
Well, I guess it's good for business. That tends to happen in such situations.
He's a fugitive now, on account of him failing to appear for his extradition warrant and jumping bail. Prior to that, he'd done nothing illegal, or at least nothing that had been proven. He'd been accused of rape, but at this point it is just an accusation/indictment. However they had a legit extradition request. So he was required to present himself for extradition. However he didn't. Well, that's against the law. So now, regardless of the validity of the rape allegation he's a criminal in the UK. He jumped bail (and screwed his supporters out of their money, since they had posted it), he's in legal trouble.
That's how it goes. When you are out on bail, you have made a promise to appear in court and it is against the law to break that promise. Even if what is going to happen is all charges are going to be dismissed, you have to appear if they order it and failure to do so is a crime.
He's wrong. The technocratic imperialism part is accurate, in a sense.
The notion that it is centered around a specific culture confined to a specific nation-state is not. He seems to be blinded by his disdain for America, when in fact his alleged adversaries are politically ambivalent outside of their concern for policy that impacts their own state-independent agenda.
If Kissenger likes something and endorses it then it is significant. Sure, from Kissenger's view a book that is good at details and concepts while it attacks his blueprints is STILL A GOOD BOOK worthy of mention. While the intent of the book is to show the reader a future to prevent, people with Kissenger's world view can easily interpret the book in the opposite. Almost everybody can read an excellent criticism and ignore the criticism while benefiting from the other aspects.
It could be that he doesn't think the book is convincing; but I think a smart guy like Kissenger knows people who follow his recommendations are going to interpret the book and not let it influence their positions. Just as reading Mein Kemf doesn't convert you into a Nazi but provides interesting insights into history.
We are deeply offended by any comparison with Schmidt and Cohen.
Our harmless and ineffective curses, incantations and potions are a comfort, and not without entertainment value.
Please refrain, Mr. Assange, from making further degrading likenesses of our calling, to that of the subjects for your article.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
The ACTIONS take say everything one needs to know - it does not matter what they SAY.
They drop the case saying it has no merit, then another official takes it up and ratchets up the attack - one with strong US ties.... If the PM signed a promise, somehow the USA would find somebody to loophole around it.
The UK was going to invade a foreign embassy -- the word is they were already positioned and ready to go but the protesters showed up so they called it off (witnesses make it far more difficult to break international law.) Now we certainly have the US state dept and the UK making threats, likely economic ones and possibly even planning to make an example out of the small nation that dared to oppose them. I don't have proof of this, it is just an educated guess; however, wikileaks proved that many educated guessers like myself were right about the state dept. for decades. There is no evidence the State Dept's history of corruption and soft imperial power has changed from the way the wikileaks cables showed them to be --- and many people said was the case (with limited evidence -- nothing beats the proof of the dept's own data back all these critics up. )
What academics and a functional press should be doing is rating all the experts and former officials turned critics and RATING THEM. The people to listen to as experts are the ones who were proven to have a good track record-- the wikileak cables provide a rare opportunity to accurately measure sources like never before. But then, since most ran away from the leaks out of fear-- they surely are not going to want to promote competent experts to the forefront... because that is even more dangerous! somebody who can accurately estimate situations without direct access is a powerful foe.
Julian whom?
not the U-r-gay-an embassy (apologies to Homer Simpson, no offense to Uruguayans), I don't think he is actually doing very much at this point, certainly not molesting women, for example. It is, essentially, prison, with the added feature that it doesn't count as prison time and costs Sweden and Britain nothing. Everyone wins! From what I've heard of Swedish prisons, the food in the embassy is likely not as good, and his internet access is probably slower.
And when you claim to be "Leaders of the Free World" and "God's Own Blessed Country, Best In The World", even if everyone else is doing it, you're the one person who would expect yourselves to refrain.
Or invaded, or their politics interfered with, or their country held to ransom, or being shafted by US ignoring the WTO when they feel like it, but running bawling their eyes out when they want mommy to protect them.
Maybe "the who world hates your guts" because you're all, as a nation, a bunch of violent sociopaths and are DESERVING of it?
You won't find many people applauding Stalinist Russia, do you. Is that because "the entire world" hated their guts? Or were they worthy of hate?
idiom? The correct term is FASCISM!
In the UK McKinnon got out of being extradited. Anyone in the UK can complain to the several courts to delay extradition. Moreover, he's not done any crime in the UK or the USA to allow extradition and, one sided as the agreement is, there STILL needs to be a crime worthy of extraditing to the country asking for it to have happened.
However, Sweden do not have that same problem. They have given over several people in the past without even a court document saying they're wanted for anything, just passed them over. And if they make this "Suprise Sex" claim stick, they can get him out of the country by any means they wish: even if it's putting him on a plane bound for the USA.
In the UK, he'd be able to demand moving to Australia.
So your assertion is completely ass-backward.
I think Assange delivered an article that shares a good portion of perspectives much people simply miss because they have no relation to what he is talking about. I was disadvantaged by such systems several times and would rather share his view than that of those being in power or equipped with absurd amounts of money. Not because he is Assange, but because i know what he is talking about.
>“THE New Digital Age” is a startlingly clear and provocative blueprint for technocratic imperialism
It at least developed from a different form of imperialism, a much more cruel one. And lets not forget that not everything is the way it seems to be. Control is of course a key factor but just because google is very popular and profitable does not mean that it is the only thing in the world and the only possible communications channel available. One question is therefore if popularity requires responsibility or transparency.
The laws in most open democracies are always shaped in a way that companies cant avoid the law, which could be a very good thing but also a very bad thing given how you look at it. And law enforcement will always open the door with the success-promising hunt for the most dangerous beast available and usually ends up with opinion based mass surveillance - no matter what kind of industry it might be we are talking about and just in case it might one day be useful. If they could, theyd try to track anyone concurrently.
Thats the control mechanisms nations have and thats not necessarily Googles fault to be located there.
And we are not talking about Google HomeView.
It's funny how once people achieve any level of notoriety, they suddenly feel the need to share their political, religious, and personal thoughts and dreams with the world.
Nobody cares what Ass-ange thinks. He's like a fly that keeps landing on the same spot on the wrong arm, until it finally gets swatted. Its coming...
I have been blocking out Google Ads and Trackers in Firefox for years now. The option of Tails and Duck Duck Go are looking better everyday. We studied Brave New World in high school many years ago, a helpful governement basically monitoring and controlling the society. This does beg the question though, does the right to bear arms to form a partisan extend to computer technology? Wikileaks has revealed war crimes and so on, is it a patriotic cause?
Victor Gundarev, a KGB defector in 1986, committed treason. David Forden, his CIA handler, made it possible. Does that mean David Forden committed treason?
Please revisit your logic classes.
Smoke and mirrors. Data Mining with F@cking us all in the end. What would anyone think of people who only earn 1 dollar a year to avoid paying taxes on Billions. @ssholes I say.
Nobody is paying attention to me .... time to act like an attention-whore again.
I would have thought the Freee Masons decended from the Teutonic Knights. Yep, National Treasure.
...which were illegal. They have a history of bending over when the US establishment wants something.
Seems easy to me ...
1) America's side is right side
2) Julian Assange says he is out to do the right thing
3) Julian Assange released info that hurt America's side
= Julian Assange is a traitor
All the ANTI Assange writers seems to beat up on 2) and 3) without ever discussing how 1) stopped being valid.
I was more or less with this AC until the last sentence:
Yep. Troll.
**of course** one of the richest most powerful men in the world is interested in geopolitics. He makes decisions that are almost *above* traditional nation/state 'sphere of influence' type geopolitics.
One word: China
Because, you know, Google's business decisions there are the very definition of geopolitical decisions.
AC is a troll. Trollbots and paid commenters are **all over** anything with Schmidt or Cohen. I posted previously about Eric Schmidt and his harmful incompetence and it was a shtistorm.
Cohen is just as bad as Schmidt. He's one of those secretly trying to gather all the world's data into a supercomputer to spur the next step in human evolution or live forever or w/e and he doesn't care who gets in his way...
That or he's just willing to sell your privacy as a commodity...point is he's ethically compromised.
Seriously a substantial number of comments on these topics represent bots or paid commenters. Take heed!
Thank you Dave Raggett
Come on, the original comment has been modded -2 Flamebait. I don't think relevance was ever a goal.
Slashdot - News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters, in ISO-8859-1 Has just realised that beta makes this signature redundant
I thought he was cool at first, but he managed his life poorly and has compromised the standing of wikileaks in my opinion. What he thinks about anything is questionable at this point. It may very well be he was lured into a honey trap, but he allowed that. I am not sure how he will define the rest of his life under the circumstances. I wouldn't call what he has done as, "lee[ping your head down".
Those with the technology and cash to back it can and will have everything they want much sooner than you think .make my words wilfred satan