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Creating a New Picture of War, Pixel by Pixel
by Jeremy at 9:36 am EDT, May 18, 2004 |
Robert Wright, author of Nonzero, writes in the LA Times. The revolution of grass-roots digital empowerment will change the nature of war and the place of war in American foreign policy. Some people who see the Abu Ghraib scandal as technologically driven are suggesting technological reforms. At one level, Rumsfeld grasps the power of digital technology. It was because our troops were digitally empowered that we needed so few of them. But this cuts both ways. Once you figure technology into both sides of the ledger, war looks different. Note to Public: Although Rumsfudd^h^h^held has not issued you a trusty repeating rifle, let there be no mistake: you have been drafted. Organized by Orkut, trained by TiVo, and equipped by Ericsson, we are all superempowered now. Engage! |
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RE: Creating a New Picture of War, Pixel by Pixel
by skullaria at 1:19 am EDT, May 19, 2004 |
Jeremy wrote:
] Robert Wright, author of Nonzero, writes in the LA Times.
]
...]
] Note to Public: Although Rumsfudd^h^h^held has not
] issued you a trusty repeating rifle, let there be no mistake:
] you have been drafted.
]
] Organized by Orkut, trained by TiVo, and equipped by Ericsson,
] we are all superempowered now.
]
] Engage! And thanks to advances in plastic surgery with its implants from dead carcases - we're all supermodels! |
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Creating a New Picture of War, Pixel by Pixel
by k at 12:06 pm EDT, May 18, 2004 |
Robert Wright, author of Nonzero, writes in the LA Times. The revolution of grass-roots digital empowerment will change the nature of war and the place of war in American foreign policy. Some people who see the Abu Ghraib scandal as technologically driven are suggesting technological reforms. At one level, Rumsfeld grasps the power of digital technology. It was because our troops were digitally empowered that we needed so few of them. But this cuts both ways. Once you figure technology into both sides of the ledger, war looks different. [ I continue to like Wright's way of thinking... he gives depth and structure to concepts I merely felt intuitively or thought about at a low level. I can't read this entire article because it's a reg-only site and google can't get me a cached version, but from the excerpt alone, I feel confident in agreeing with it, at least in sum. I think we'll see a soft revolution in the way people engage government and politics. Multi-tiered topical forums will grow in relevance, and the populace will convey it's wishes in vast electronic versions of congress or parliament. Representation can become more direct. Of course, all this assumes the infrastructure can be built in a fault-tolerant way... one which minimizes the ability of any one group or faction to take over the network surrepeticiously. Still, I think it can come, assuming we don't run out of energy first. -k] |
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RE: Creating a New Picture of War, Pixel by Pixel
by Jeremy at 9:59 pm EDT, May 18, 2004 |
k wrote:
] I can't read this entire article because it's a reg-only site No offense, but I'm tired of hearing this. It's whining. If you're sophisticated enough to 'care' about this 'burden', I'm sure you're capable of devising a 'workaround' that doesn't involve Google. I'll give you three ideas: John Doe, Hotmail, and bugmenot.com. ] I think we'll see a soft revolution in the way people engage
] government and politics. Representation can become more direct. This assumes that people care. I remain unconvinced. And even then, there are degrees of caring. There's caring enough to complain about it, and then there's caring enough to identify an alternative and take action to see it through to success. With regard to direct representation, this assumes that all of the sufficiently motivated people are actually prepared for this duty. Again, I remain unconvinced. I would point you to the recent Edge thread around the Aristotle idea of Danny Hillis; look at the replies and see what the academics say about the hard problems in education. |
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RE: Creating a New Picture of War, Pixel by Pixel
by k at 12:18 am EDT, May 19, 2004 |
Jeremy wrote:
] No offense, but I'm tired of hearing this. It's whining. Whatever.
] This assumes that people care. I remain unconvinced. And
] even then, there are degrees of caring. There's caring enough
] to complain about it, and then there's caring enough to
] identify an alternative and take action to see it
] through to success.
]
] With regard to direct representation, this assumes that all of
] the sufficiently motivated people are actually prepared for
] this duty. Again, I remain unconvinced. I would point you to
] the recent Edge thread around the Aristotle idea of Danny
] Hillis; look at the replies and see what the academics say
] about the hard problems in education. I'm also unconvinced. I think you have to cross a burden of simplicity before people will do anything, even things that are in their best interest. The benefits that information technology can provide in this area is to reduce the burden of involvement still lower. I'm saddened that so many people think that reading a paper or reading some websites is too much work, or that voting is pointless, but they do. So, if we can come up with a way to let more people involve themselves with minimal effort, so much the better. There'll still be people who don't care and don't participate... you'll never get 100%, but maybe you can do better than we have today. Prepared or not, the people have the duty, so maybe we can come up with some tools that make it easier for everyone to contribute. There's a vast amount of information available, and lots of people talking... not all of them are fools... maybe that can be captured for the benefit of all. I've got that edge piece printed and waiting to be read, but alas, too busy the past few days to read it. perhaps it will change my view. certainly there are people far smarter than me, with far more resources, devoting their cycles to these issues... |
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RE: Creating a New Picture of War, Pixel by Pixel
by Decius at 1:36 pm EDT, May 20, 2004 |
k wrote:
] I'm also unconvinced. I think you have to cross a burden of
] simplicity before people will do anything, even things that
] are in their best interest. I've come to the conclusion that you actually want shifty, dishonest politicians elected by an apathetic populace. This means that things are working. There are two reasons that people act: Carrots and Sticks. Lowering the barrier to entry might be a carrot, but the sticks are much more effective and come when the political situation makes it impossible for people to go about their lives without acting. I'm confident that technology has improved the resources available to people if/when they choose to act. So far they don't need to, largely. Don't wish for times when they do. When people are involved and committed and political leaders are honest and have clear vision; that usually happens when things are really, really fucked up. Who are the U.S. Presidents we most admire? What was going on during their presidencies? |
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