you've got to think - don't female police officers go to these events, and if not... wouldn't it be a good idea to send a couple, just to arrest a few idiots who think it'd be a good idea to sexually assault one.
Are you implying that male police officers wouldn't do their job? It's the role of the hacker community to provide for internal security, not simply to add more police or add female police, but the hacker community itself has to provide some specific training to the police as the community knows best how to deal with itself.
Arrest isn't the most efficient way to minimize risk because by then the events have happened. The solution is to make the risk of getting caught so high that no one can attempt to assault anyone or attempt to falsely accuse anyone.
Or the experience of one of my friends, who prefers to remain anonymous. At a recent DEFCON, while leaning over to get her drink at the bar, someone slid his hand up all the way between her legs and grabbed her crotch.
I cannot believe someone could even remotely think that doing something like this would be a good idea. Someone else's body is not just an object. Jesus Christ people, get a fucking clue - this sort of attitude makes for a very poor environment all around.
There are many stupid blokes in the world. I'm sure this actually happened. We also have to consider that any time you put a large amount of politically radical individuals in one place, a portion of them will be falsely accused because it's just politically convenient. The next Julian Assange very well could be at Defcon, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if this situation gets exploited by both sides.
We need to educate both men and women about safety. We need technology in place which is gender neutral, which protects both the accused and the accuser. The last thing we want is for something horrible like a sexual assault to happen but being falsely accused of a sexual assault is as horrible as being sexually assaulted. So we have to consider all potential risks and scenarios in security policy.
Not trying to be conspiratorial, but why is it Occupy Wallstreet, Julian Assange, and now "hacker culture" all get accused of sexual assaults? What is the connection? Or are certain people in certain social networks more likely to commit or be accused of sexual assault?
There are politics involved with hacking, hackers upset a lot of people with a lot of power. Hacktivists in particular. Human rights defenders in particular. What could be worse for a hacker or anybody than to be labeled a sex offender? While it is possible that sexual assaults are going on, we also have a correlation with the majority of hackers being young males (there are females but we don't hear much about them), and what we see happening is the landscape for hackers becoming much more militarized, much more political, and much more dangerous.
My advice is that anyone in the hacker community both men and women should take some time to discuss how to protect both women from being sexually assaulted and protect men from being falsely accused as there will a probability of both occurring with increasingly greater frequency.
Don't call something "likely" when there's no precident, evidence or expressed intent for it.
Don't kid yourself. There is a reason Sweden has went to such extraordinary lengths to get him back (for a crime he hasn't even been charged with) and why they've twice now refused to question him in both the UK and Ecuadorian embassy. And it isn't because they've suddenly decided to become great defenders of justice for women who've both expressed ambiguity about the whole case.
They want to question him so they can attempt to recruit him to work for the CIA I bet.
29 February 2012: Stratfor e-mails have revealed that a sealed indictment has been issued by a secret grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, for Julian Assange. The email is dated 26 January 2011. This means that there has likely been a sealed extradition order for over a year, which will be activated (unsealed) against Assange in Sweden, Australia and the UK when the US Government gives the order.
Under what law? I don't see how you can charge him when he's not a US citizen and wasn't in charge of classified information. I guess foreign countries can charge anyone in the USA when something leaks to a US journalist?
I think people who victimize children are evil. I think there are parts of society, parts of the media and parts of the government who contribute to evil or actively do harm children, but that wasn't the subject I was discussing. That would take a lot longer to break down into reasonable parts, but I'm open to discussion in another forum and not terribly hard to contact if you feel so inclined. I'm not anonymous.
So if you agree that society and government are evil why do you support the laws of the evil society which punish the bravest and best people and spare the mediocre cowards?
How many of those Apple users lining up to buy the new Iphones are Apple employees or associates paid to stand in line? The amount of people in line is eerily similar with each product launch, how many of these people are the same and what is their association to Apple?
I want to hate them. I believe in following the law. I believe in following the rules of society and government. I believe that doing bad things in the name of good is still bad. Still, it is hard for me to hold Anonymous as evil when they are doing good like this, fighting the evil (of child porn) and injustice (Sony.)
If you are an Anonymous member reading this, then know this, I am against you. I hold wrong what you do and how you do it, but what you are accomplishing... you have torn my ethical code. So here's to you, I raise a glass, may you be punished for your wrongdoing, may you suffer the consequences of your misdeeds, but despite that, may you accomplish the good things you aim for. If you have the balls to be willing to take the just desserts of what you have done and still have the guts to do what you feel is right, then kudos to you.
You think child porn is evil but the society,media and government which sexualizes children isnt?
Facebook/Twitter doesn't sound like Anonymous, it sounds like scriptkiddies and armchair activists who just want to look like the coolest kid in middle school.
Sounds like a bunch of snitches. This makes Anonymous look less than serious as an organization.
He might not like the way Nobel picks the winners. The awards with the most money behind it gets the most people the show up and the most press. If he agree with the way Nobel does it, he would just add to the prize money
This is the cool part of his way: "As for the panel's composition, he admits that "any nine names I would have chosen would not be a perfect set". Future prizewinners will be chosen by winners from previous years. As the prize committee gradually expands, Milner believes that any imbalances in the panel will self correct. Each year, the laureates will also select three junior researchers to receive a $100,000 'New Horizons' prize, and, if warranted, a winner of an ad hoc prize."
Scientists need enough money to pay their bills and comfortably conduct their research. Beyond that you're right it's entirely about the praise. Praise is not the same as media attention, but more praise from their own community. They want to be recognized in their own community among peers. That is the whole point isn't it?
The other point is they genuinely want to find answers to specific questions.
Unfortunately, no. Many intelligent young students are already going into high-energy theory and string theory (the primary recipients of this prize). In fact, there are far more students than jobs. I'm a recent PhD from a top physics (and particularly string theory) school. My classmates in string and high energy theory who recently applied for postdocs applied to 100 in order to receive 1 job offer; none of their jobs were in the U.S. These are not permanent jobs; they are usually 2 or 3 year positions, paying $40,000 or so. At the end of this time, you may then enter the lottery for the (literally) one string theory faculty job per year (see http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=4701 for job statistics). This is what causes students to leave to go to Wall Street, and piping in more money to the already-established best of the best of the field will not change this.
The purpose of this award seems to be to raise the profile of so-called "fundamental" theoretical physics; perhaps it will cause more funding to be directed in that direction, which might be good. More likely, it will simply encourage more optimistic, talented students to step into the meat grinder of a particularly depressed job market, making it even worse, and eventually redirecting another generation's best minds into Wall Street.
I'm not saying don't celebrate physics (I love physics, and am continuing in the field, though on a much more applied topic, where there is more funding) - but there is already enough hype for string theory, and it burns out enough students already.
Yes but how will that solve any problem in society in specific? It might help for weapons development, as physics helped create the nuclear bomb. It might help create the internet but it also creates the surveillance the NSA uses. Once again I see none of the scientists actually trying to figure out how to explain to regular people what benefit this can have on their lives and their quality of life.
Will we have better video games? A faster internet? A more secure internet? A more secure society? Focus on what people actually care about to market your research.
The average American doesn't understand the implications of much of the scientific study that goes on, therefore it's useless and the money could be spent "on more important things".
The problem with money is money already comes from corporations to skew the results in their favor. We cannot trust the studies anymore because of the influence of money. That being said if the studies are more objective they can be more trustworthy but still, if the problem is important enough to be solved then money wont be what motivates you to try and solve it.
I'm not saying that theoretical research shouldn't be done - far from it. Rather I'm complaining that we don't really fund any research all that much as a society, even the more applied stuff with direct and obvious benefits that just happen to be "next decade" rather than "next quarter".
That's because money is one of the worst motivations for scientific research. If a problem isn't important enough to you personally to solve without making money then perhaps it shouldn't be solved.
Researching for end goals often leads us to think about what we know rather than what we don't... that's why radical advancements are few and far.
I think scientific research is most fruitful when motives are purely for seeking out the unknown (Think Higgs Boson), And while there are usually very significant practical applications to be gained for the world, they are often very far and detached, people forget this and complain that science is a waste of money each time a new project like the LHC is funded, then forget about it 30 years later when their cheap space flights become a possibility. It's unfortunate that the human life span and common arrogance gives us such short shortsightedness.
Of course there are fields of research that are more focused on the end goal of a practical application, like fusion power. However i think it will take something more for that to take a big leap. I think of it like the way peoples brains tend to work wile crunching problems... sometimes you hit a wall and the only way to solve it is let your brain idle on it in the background and do other things, then without even thinking something unrelated will kick that background thought process in the right direction.
I'm not saying focused projects like fusion power are pointless ether though... just that sometimes it's about timing, eventually that work has to be done if we want fusion power, that kind of technology isn't going to come all at once as an accident. And also these practical projects tend to lead to the development of a whole host of other useful technology on the path to achieving their main goal (think NASA)
Our problems are social not technological. We do need technology as part of the solution. For instance our Justice system is completely broken now that we understand neuroscience and now that we have devices which can read peoples thoughts such as FMRI. We also have artificial intelligence, yet we still rely on humans to make laws which can have people put to death, or put in prison for 20+ years. I'm all for surveillance if we have fair and logical laws which actually focused on protecting people but the majority of our laws are politically motivated.
The drug laws don't protect people. The drug laws are politically motivated. The drug prisoner is a political prisoner. These would have been considered very radical positions but these positions will eventually become the mainstream yet the policies still aren't changing. Instead the police want to fly drones over our house to arrest people growing pot. Technology can save the day but only if the technology helps to liberate rather than enslave. As a scientist you have to be careful not to build your own prison.
I mean, seriously, here's a country that's the single biggest consumer of energy, with all predictions showing that it'll only grow, and a hefty chunk of it comes from sources that are 1) dirty and 2) foreign. Furthermore, it is a country that has already went through the energy crisis caused by withdrawal of said foreign sources.
You're approaching this from a rational perspective of someone who sees that the world is really old and will still be here for a long time.
Now try pretending that you think Jesus will magic you into heaven Real Soon Now. Because that's exactly what the end-times fundie Christians are about. It just so happens to provide a convenient excuse for destructive, short-term thinking as well..
There are other rational perspectives. Why should young people care about any of that stuff when the older leadership don't care about them? Why would you care about the future children when the current children are treated like crap and the future children are only expected to be treated worse? Most people are going to try to get what they can from life and unless there are significant incentives to do the right thing don't expect people to care.
Yes energy is important if you care about the growth of society, but if society is growing backwards or is a growing cancer do you still care? So once again the appeal here is to the emotions of people who are expected to care about the future, but the political policies, laws, and justice system we have in place today does not think about the future, does not care about the future, does not even care about the present. The policies are setting traps for young people growing up today so they cannot make it into the future regardless of what happens on the energy front.
For instance lets say we get cheaper energy and greater technology and it's used to create a better police state, or to more effectively arrest drug criminals, or to create better weapons? The only solution I see is transhumanism, to direct the technology to benefit people and to use quality of life engineering. Unfortunately most physicists aren't doing that and are just tools for the very politicians they claim they don't like.
The tools they will use for the next high tech inquisition will be built by the scientists of today. Unmanned drones run by and powered by solar energy to find people smoking pot in their living rooms and breaking whatever laws they decide to create thanks to scientists.
Anyone not understanding what an exponential is does not have a good enough understanding of demographics to make a fully informed decision about making babies and should not be authorized to take a loan.
But they don't teach an understanding of the concepts of algebra. They were more concerned with you passing exams and getting the problems solved.
Yes computer programming and science is all about problem solving and use knowledge of certain concepts are useful but the way math is taught a lot of those concepts I've learned better from computer programming or on my own than in class.
Good, TFA never mentions how this could be used for nefarious purposes. I mean, with algae-based gene therapy on brain cells and fiber optic cables crammed into your head, what could possibly go wrong?
If this technology were built up by the wrong people in the right way it could replace waterboarding.
Sounds completely insane for anyone to willingly run such a thing.
Some people are brave enough to run servers that will help political dissidents in China, Africa, and elsewhere.
It's not a matter of being brave enough. How can it be done in a safe and effective way? If you want more people to do it then figure out how to make some best practices so it's safer. As things are right now Tor is the wild west and anything can happen to anyone "brave" enough to run an exit node. If running an exit node produces bad luck for whoever runs it, no one will want to run exit nodes. So how can we disconnect the individual ownership from the exit node? Libraries? Universities? What?
Most connections from exit nodes are perfectly legal. For example a Chinese guy wants to access Slashdot. The traffic in the US is legal and it's just his traffic which is encrypted and going to a different node which is where he has a problem if it's discovered.
Let's be clear. The mere fact that you aren't doing anything doesn't make you immune from the police. There are so many laws and regulations set up for corporate interests that it's likely that you are breaking something; merely not running an exit node will not protect you. Filtering the traffic on exit nodes can very much reduce anti-social (potentially illegal) traffic. As long as you are only accepting a partial contribution and your costs are more than $100 you can treat this as an expense payment rather than a profit. This is likely to be seen very differently in court than profiting from an activity. Furthermore, the explicit involvement with the Tor project could help make it clear you did things for political reasons rather than in order to facilitate illegal activities. Overall, bearing in mind INAL, INAL in your country and, ICNYL (certainly not your lawyer), I don't see that this much increases the risk of a person running an exit node.
There's plenty of reasonable FUD to spread about tor; it could be very risky to use tor from China since the traffic isn't that well hidden; you have to be very careful about your end point security; in less-democratic / less free countries you may be arrested for running an exit node even if you had no intention of supporting illegal activities. There's no need to make up extra FUD
But it would still make you a target of China. Do you want to deal with that? If it's illegal in China then the Chinese government will eventually figure out who is running the exit node.
Why would they care about who is connecting those nodes? They would just target the node operators and watch them to determine who connects and what goes on.
Once again I don't see how being a node operator for Tor can possibly be good in this environment. If there is another scandal and something goes forwarded through your node anyone from Putin to Obama could want to make you comply.
Is there a way to make it impossible to determine who is running the node? Such as someone drops the node in a park and walks away?
As things are right now, anyone caught running an exit node in any country could face harassment by hostile intelligence agencies. As a result no one really wants to run them. What can you do if you run a node and you get a knock on your door from the Secret Service or FBI? You'll be forced to cooperate.
If you run an exit node and several intelligence agencies find out you're the guy behind the node what exactly can you do? I would say you're life would be ruined. So is there a way to run exit nodes completely anonymously?
Slashdot Mirror
you've got to think - don't female police officers go to these events, and if not... wouldn't it be a good idea to send a couple, just to arrest a few idiots who think it'd be a good idea to sexually assault one.
Are you implying that male police officers wouldn't do their job? It's the role of the hacker community to provide for internal security, not simply to add more police or add female police, but the hacker community itself has to provide some specific training to the police as the community knows best how to deal with itself.
Arrest isn't the most efficient way to minimize risk because by then the events have happened. The solution is to make the risk of getting caught so high that no one can attempt to assault anyone or attempt to falsely accuse anyone.
FTFA:
Or the experience of one of my friends, who prefers to remain anonymous. At a recent DEFCON, while leaning over to get her drink at the bar, someone slid his hand up all the way between her legs and grabbed her crotch.
I cannot believe someone could even remotely think that doing something like this would be a good idea. Someone else's body is not just an object. Jesus Christ people, get a fucking clue - this sort of attitude makes for a very poor environment all around.
There are many stupid blokes in the world. I'm sure this actually happened. We also have to consider that any time you put a large amount of politically radical individuals in one place, a portion of them will be falsely accused because it's just politically convenient. The next Julian Assange very well could be at Defcon, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if this situation gets exploited by both sides.
We need to educate both men and women about safety. We need technology in place which is gender neutral, which protects both the accused and the accuser. The last thing we want is for something horrible like a sexual assault to happen but being falsely accused of a sexual assault is as horrible as being sexually assaulted. So we have to consider all potential risks and scenarios in security policy.
Not trying to be conspiratorial, but why is it Occupy Wallstreet, Julian Assange, and now "hacker culture" all get accused of sexual assaults? What is the connection? Or are certain people in certain social networks more likely to commit or be accused of sexual assault?
There are politics involved with hacking, hackers upset a lot of people with a lot of power. Hacktivists in particular. Human rights defenders in particular. What could be worse for a hacker or anybody than to be labeled a sex offender? While it is possible that sexual assaults are going on, we also have a correlation with the majority of hackers being young males (there are females but we don't hear much about them), and what we see happening is the landscape for hackers becoming much more militarized, much more political, and much more dangerous.
My advice is that anyone in the hacker community both men and women should take some time to discuss how to protect both women from being sexually assaulted and protect men from being falsely accused as there will a probability of both occurring with increasingly greater frequency.
Sources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4od4QQVK1o
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18519380
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ngF4V-TOUI
Don't call something "likely" when there's no precident, evidence or expressed intent for it.
Don't kid yourself. There is a reason Sweden has went to such extraordinary lengths to get him back (for a crime he hasn't even been charged with) and why they've twice now refused to question him in both the UK and Ecuadorian embassy. And it isn't because they've suddenly decided to become great defenders of justice for women who've both expressed ambiguity about the whole case.
They want to question him so they can attempt to recruit him to work for the CIA I bet.
actually there seems to be intent
http://justice4assange.com/US-Extradition.html
29 February 2012: Stratfor e-mails have revealed that a sealed indictment has been issued by a secret grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, for Julian Assange. The email is dated 26 January 2011. This means that there has likely been a sealed extradition order for over a year, which will be activated (unsealed) against Assange in Sweden, Australia and the UK when the US Government gives the order.
Under what law? I don't see how you can charge him when he's not a US citizen and wasn't in charge of classified information. I guess foreign countries can charge anyone in the USA when something leaks to a US journalist?
It's a form of mental illness.
I think people who victimize children are evil. I think there are parts of society, parts of the media and parts of the government who contribute to evil or actively do harm children, but that wasn't the subject I was discussing. That would take a lot longer to break down into reasonable parts, but I'm open to discussion in another forum and not terribly hard to contact if you feel so inclined. I'm not anonymous.
So if you agree that society and government are evil why do you support the laws of the evil society which punish the bravest and best people and spare the mediocre cowards?
Not everyone in line is paid but a portion probably are.
How many of those Apple users lining up to buy the new Iphones are Apple employees or associates paid to stand in line? The amount of people in line is eerily similar with each product launch, how many of these people are the same and what is their association to Apple?
Undercover marketing is real. For all who don't know what it is, here is a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcZkbUH-lOc
I want to hate them. I believe in following the law. I believe in following the rules of society and government. I believe that doing bad things in the name of good is still bad. Still, it is hard for me to hold Anonymous as evil when they are doing good like this, fighting the evil (of child porn) and injustice (Sony.)
If you are an Anonymous member reading this, then know this, I am against you. I hold wrong what you do and how you do it, but what you are accomplishing... you have torn my ethical code. So here's to you, I raise a glass, may you be punished for your wrongdoing, may you suffer the consequences of your misdeeds, but despite that, may you accomplish the good things you aim for. If you have the balls to be willing to take the just desserts of what you have done and still have the guts to do what you feel is right, then kudos to you.
You think child porn is evil but the society,media and government which sexualizes children isnt?
Facebook/Twitter doesn't sound like Anonymous, it sounds like scriptkiddies and armchair activists who just want to look like the coolest kid in middle school.
Sounds like a bunch of snitches. This makes Anonymous look less than serious as an organization.
He might not like the way Nobel picks the winners. The awards with the most money behind it gets the most people the show up and the most press. If he agree with the way Nobel does it, he would just add to the prize money
This is the cool part of his way:
"As for the panel's composition, he admits that "any nine names I would have chosen would not be a perfect set". Future prizewinners will be chosen by winners from previous years. As the prize committee gradually expands, Milner believes that any imbalances in the panel will self correct. Each year, the laureates will also select three junior researchers to receive a $100,000 'New Horizons' prize, and, if warranted, a winner of an ad hoc prize."
Scientists need enough money to pay their bills and comfortably conduct their research. Beyond that you're right it's entirely about the praise. Praise is not the same as media attention, but more praise from their own community. They want to be recognized in their own community among peers. That is the whole point isn't it?
The other point is they genuinely want to find answers to specific questions.
Unfortunately, no. Many intelligent young students are already going into high-energy theory and string theory (the primary recipients of this prize). In fact, there are far more students than jobs. I'm a recent PhD from a top physics (and particularly string theory) school. My classmates in string and high energy theory who recently applied for postdocs applied to 100 in order to receive 1 job offer; none of their jobs were in the U.S. These are not permanent jobs; they are usually 2 or 3 year positions, paying $40,000 or so. At the end of this time, you may then enter the lottery for the (literally) one string theory faculty job per year (see http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=4701 for job statistics). This is what causes students to leave to go to Wall Street, and piping in more money to the already-established best of the best of the field will not change this.
The purpose of this award seems to be to raise the profile of so-called "fundamental" theoretical physics; perhaps it will cause more funding to be directed in that direction, which might be good. More likely, it will simply encourage more optimistic, talented students to step into the meat grinder of a particularly depressed job market, making it even worse, and eventually redirecting another generation's best minds into Wall Street.
I'm not saying don't celebrate physics (I love physics, and am continuing in the field, though on a much more applied topic, where there is more funding) - but there is already enough hype for string theory, and it burns out enough students already.
Yes but how will that solve any problem in society in specific? It might help for weapons development, as physics helped create the nuclear bomb. It might help create the internet but it also creates the surveillance the NSA uses. Once again I see none of the scientists actually trying to figure out how to explain to regular people what benefit this can have on their lives and their quality of life.
Will we have better video games? A faster internet? A more secure internet? A more secure society? Focus on what people actually care about to market your research.
The average American doesn't understand the implications of much of the scientific study that goes on, therefore it's useless and the money could be spent "on more important things".
The problem with money is money already comes from corporations to skew the results in their favor. We cannot trust the studies anymore because of the influence of money. That being said if the studies are more objective they can be more trustworthy but still, if the problem is important enough to be solved then money wont be what motivates you to try and solve it.
I'm not saying that theoretical research shouldn't be done - far from it. Rather I'm complaining that we don't really fund any research all that much as a society, even the more applied stuff with direct and obvious benefits that just happen to be "next decade" rather than "next quarter".
That's because money is one of the worst motivations for scientific research. If a problem isn't important enough to you personally to solve without making money then perhaps it shouldn't be solved.
Researching for end goals often leads us to think about what we know rather than what we don't... that's why radical advancements are few and far.
I think scientific research is most fruitful when motives are purely for seeking out the unknown (Think Higgs Boson), And while there are usually very significant practical applications to be gained for the world, they are often very far and detached, people forget this and complain that science is a waste of money each time a new project like the LHC is funded, then forget about it 30 years later when their cheap space flights become a possibility. It's unfortunate that the human life span and common arrogance gives us such short shortsightedness.
Of course there are fields of research that are more focused on the end goal of a practical application, like fusion power. However i think it will take something more for that to take a big leap. I think of it like the way peoples brains tend to work wile crunching problems... sometimes you hit a wall and the only way to solve it is let your brain idle on it in the background and do other things, then without even thinking something unrelated will kick that background thought process in the right direction.
I'm not saying focused projects like fusion power are pointless ether though... just that sometimes it's about timing, eventually that work has to be done if we want fusion power, that kind of technology isn't going to come all at once as an accident. And also these practical projects tend to lead to the development of a whole host of other useful technology on the path to achieving their main goal (think NASA)
Our problems are social not technological. We do need technology as part of the solution. For instance our Justice system is completely broken now that we understand neuroscience and now that we have devices which can read peoples thoughts such as FMRI. We also have artificial intelligence, yet we still rely on humans to make laws which can have people put to death, or put in prison for 20+ years. I'm all for surveillance if we have fair and logical laws which actually focused on protecting people but the majority of our laws are politically motivated.
The drug laws don't protect people. The drug laws are politically motivated. The drug prisoner is a political prisoner. These would have been considered very radical positions but these positions will eventually become the mainstream yet the policies still aren't changing. Instead the police want to fly drones over our house to arrest people growing pot. Technology can save the day but only if the technology helps to liberate rather than enslave. As a scientist you have to be careful not to build your own prison.
You're approaching this from a rational perspective of someone who sees that the world is really old and will still be here for a long time.
Now try pretending that you think Jesus will magic you into heaven Real Soon Now. Because that's exactly what the end-times fundie Christians are about. It just so happens to provide a convenient excuse for destructive, short-term thinking as well..
There are other rational perspectives. Why should young people care about any of that stuff when the older leadership don't care about them? Why would you care about the future children when the current children are treated like crap and the future children are only expected to be treated worse? Most people are going to try to get what they can from life and unless there are significant incentives to do the right thing don't expect people to care.
Yes energy is important if you care about the growth of society, but if society is growing backwards or is a growing cancer do you still care? So once again the appeal here is to the emotions of people who are expected to care about the future, but the political policies, laws, and justice system we have in place today does not think about the future, does not care about the future, does not even care about the present. The policies are setting traps for young people growing up today so they cannot make it into the future regardless of what happens on the energy front.
For instance lets say we get cheaper energy and greater technology and it's used to create a better police state, or to more effectively arrest drug criminals, or to create better weapons? The only solution I see is transhumanism, to direct the technology to benefit people and to use quality of life engineering. Unfortunately most physicists aren't doing that and are just tools for the very politicians they claim they don't like.
The tools they will use for the next high tech inquisition will be built by the scientists of today. Unmanned drones run by and powered by solar energy to find people smoking pot in their living rooms and breaking whatever laws they decide to create thanks to scientists.
Anyone not understanding what an exponential is does not have a good enough understanding of demographics to make a fully informed decision about making babies and should not be authorized to take a loan.
But they don't teach an understanding of the concepts of algebra. They were more concerned with you passing exams and getting the problems solved.
Yes computer programming and science is all about problem solving and use knowledge of certain concepts are useful but the way math is taught a lot of those concepts I've learned better from computer programming or on my own than in class.
Good, TFA never mentions how this could be used for nefarious purposes. I mean, with algae-based gene therapy on brain cells and fiber optic cables crammed into your head, what could possibly go wrong?
If this technology were built up by the wrong people in the right way it could replace waterboarding.
they can aid dissidents in China, Syria, Iran, Cuba, etc.
and they can keep an eye on kiddie porn assholes
sound like an exotic weird idea? Tor was started by the government, specifically the US Naval Research Laboratory
heck, i can see the Chinese government running their own exit nodes for keeping an eye on political dissidents
all your Tor is belong to government
That might be true but what about all the innocent civilians who think they can run exit nodes too? They all get brutalized by pissed off governments?
Sounds completely insane for anyone to willingly run such a thing.
Some people are brave enough to run servers that will help political dissidents in China, Africa, and elsewhere.
It's not a matter of being brave enough. How can it be done in a safe and effective way? If you want more people to do it then figure out how to make some best practices so it's safer. As things are right now Tor is the wild west and anything can happen to anyone "brave" enough to run an exit node. If running an exit node produces bad luck for whoever runs it, no one will want to run exit nodes. So how can we disconnect the individual ownership from the exit node? Libraries? Universities? What?
Most connections from exit nodes are perfectly legal. For example a Chinese guy wants to access Slashdot. The traffic in the US is legal and it's just his traffic which is encrypted and going to a different node which is where he has a problem if it's discovered.
Let's be clear. The mere fact that you aren't doing anything doesn't make you immune from the police. There are so many laws and regulations set up for corporate interests that it's likely that you are breaking something; merely not running an exit node will not protect you. Filtering the traffic on exit nodes can very much reduce anti-social (potentially illegal) traffic. As long as you are only accepting a partial contribution and your costs are more than $100 you can treat this as an expense payment rather than a profit. This is likely to be seen very differently in court than profiting from an activity. Furthermore, the explicit involvement with the Tor project could help make it clear you did things for political reasons rather than in order to facilitate illegal activities. Overall, bearing in mind INAL, INAL in your country and, ICNYL (certainly not your lawyer), I don't see that this much increases the risk of a person running an exit node.
There's plenty of reasonable FUD to spread about tor; it could be very risky to use tor from China since the traffic isn't that well hidden; you have to be very careful about your end point security; in less-democratic / less free countries you may be arrested for running an exit node even if you had no intention of supporting illegal activities. There's no need to make up extra FUD
But it would still make you a target of China. Do you want to deal with that? If it's illegal in China then the Chinese government will eventually figure out who is running the exit node.
Why would they care about who is connecting those nodes? They would just target the node operators and watch them to determine who connects and what goes on.
Once again I don't see how being a node operator for Tor can possibly be good in this environment. If there is another scandal and something goes forwarded through your node anyone from Putin to Obama could want to make you comply.
Is there a way to make it impossible to determine who is running the node? Such as someone drops the node in a park and walks away?
As things are right now, anyone caught running an exit node in any country could face harassment by hostile intelligence agencies. As a result no one really wants to run them. What can you do if you run a node and you get a knock on your door from the Secret Service or FBI? You'll be forced to cooperate.
If you run an exit node and several intelligence agencies find out you're the guy behind the node what exactly can you do? I would say you're life would be ruined. So is there a way to run exit nodes completely anonymously?