NSA and the Nature of Power

The alleged reasons for needing a mass surveillance state via the NSA are heavily contested by privacy advocates. While the official story is that all the snooping revealed to us by Edward Snowden is needed in an age of terrorism in order to have the security we desire, the majority of the claims in favor of these programs don't hold water. There has yet to be an actual shred of evidence that shows that mass surveillance has stopped even a single terrorist attack.

It doesn't take too much looking to see that there are many good arguments against programs like Prism and dragnet metadata collection that include the right to privacy guaranteed in the constitution, the cost and effort inefficiencies that come from such a running such a leviathan, the nearly impossible task of sorting through the ocean of data collected in a way that will actually be useful, and so on. While all of those arguments are well founded, I'm choosing to focus on what I believe to be the highest concern in the hierarchy of issues facing the NSA; the concentration of power.

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

-Lord Acton

Fredrick Douglas struggled for years trying to figure out why blacks were slaves to whites. He eventually came to the profound conclusion that white people had enslaved black people because they had the power to do so and blacks did not have the power to stop them. While a very simple explanation, it describes the very real psychology of power itself. Often when one is able to express great power without consequence you will find that person suddenly willing to do so. One only needs to casually peruse internet comments sections to see how the power of anonymity has greatly increased the lack of civility. So it is with all forms of power, particularly the power of violence. When it becomes concentrated and without parallel under an individual or oligarchic power structure, those holding this power will insist on things staying that way and use all forms of persuasion, deception, and force to convince the common man that it is, in fact, in their best interest to support and uphold the very power structure that forges their shackles. The United States and the constitution was built on this understanding.

As we can see, this is the exact argument we're hearing today by the powers that be. They insist that the information they have is so sensitive that even revealing self-legitimizing evidence is too risky in the fight against the 21st century boogey-man.  In effect, we're expected to believe the words of people that have operated under the silken shroud of government secrecy and liberal use of public deception. Sounds peachy.

Their primary tactic in luring the masses to worship at the alter of state power is unfortunately--and yet naturally effectively--the method of fear-mongering. It is the use of this very primal and totally anti-rational emotion through which they seek to motivate the public into unquestionable obedience. 

There is a very real likelihood that NSA has little, if any, intention of stopping terrorists. Glenn Greenwald is hopefully not far from revealing the names of specific NSA targets which he says will shock the public, even going so far as to compare it to the snooping done on civil rights activists in the 60's, like Martin Luther King Jr. If we do indeed find out that NSA targets are not actually terrorists but rather the politically dissident, then it is clear that regardless of the initial intention of starting these programs, the absolute power of total surveillance has begun to corrupt absolutely. This should be no surprise given the recent revelations about how the IRS has been used to target conservative and libertarian groups to minimize their impact. The wheels turn, but nothing is new.

It is the duty of the tech community to contribute in whatever way they can in fighting against the ignorance and propaganda of those who claim that tyranny is necessary. There are many ways to contribute. The tech community responded effectively to the false notion that collecting metadata was a harmless act that revealed nothing about individuals. Many dedicated individuals are working on various open source projects that assist the individual in protecting their privacy and fight big brother. 

"I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs." -Frederick Douglas

Their is still more to be done. Information and programming knowledge are the legs we need to free ourselves from the oppression of concentrated power. The tech community, armed with the tools we use in our day to day act of making a living, is uniquely poised to solve this problem and fight back. This problem will not resolve itself.  It is essential that we understand the imperative nature of this task.

The Bricoleur: Why You Should Indulge Your Diverse Interests

Some of the greatest achievements in technology, art, science, and the humanities are the result of mixing seemingly disconnected things. While the majority of academia are focused on break-throughs, the real innovators, trend-setters, and advancers of the human race are focused on bricolage; the mixing of multiple disciplines to create fantastic outcomes.

If you go to a University and choose a major with a career path you are choosing to be funneled into something that someone else has already created. You may bring your own talents and flavor to a field and you might even be exceptional at it. But chances are you won't make anything particularly new.
A person who mixes multiple fields of expertise to create something new is the bricoleur, or translated, the tinkerer.

Bricoleurs are multi-disciplinarians. In his youth, Michelangelo spent hours studying botany and human anatomy and making details drawings of various plants, animals, and cadavers. It was his knowledge of biology and anatomy that allowed him to be an exceptional artist. He was able to draw humans with a new level of realism. He could draw angels with wings that looked organic and natural. In addition to anatomy he was trained in architecture and metal-working. He pioneered a method for working with brass that allowed the construction of a life-size elephant. He was endlessly creative and used his natural curiosity that made him study many fields to make some of the most fantastic artistic pieces in history.

As a modern and possibly cliche example, think of Apple. When I was growing up in Utah in the early 90's my dad owned a computer training program for children and teenagers called Future Kids. I remember attending a course where a touch screen was demonstrated on a desktop computer. It was so clunky and difficult to use, I remember thinking, "why on earth would anybody want to use this over a mouse?" During the same period my father also had a brick sized cell phone that struggled to get reception and costed a fortune.

A little more than a decade later Apple released a much improved application to the touchscreen I had seen as a kid called the iPhone. Apple didn't invent cell phones. They didn't invent touchscreen technology. They didn't even invent the idea that a phone could browse the internet or send emails. But they did greatly improve the user experience of all those things while making it affordable for the average user. That invention has forever changed our uses for computers.

Technology has brought a new and exciting medium for the bricoleur. Virtually any field can be expressed or enhanced though the field of software. The most exciting element of software as a medium or tool is that it is dynamic. It allows a clever programmer to cheaply replicate their own innovation for the use of others.

The potential combinations and uses of software are endless. Whatever fields of interest--personal or professional--that you have, learning to intelligently code can give you the opportunity to share your particular genius.