Monbiot speaks out about Pegasus spyware.

[Serial_Apologist]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_zZQE7VXGk

I thought this belonged here rather than on the tech threads.

[ardcarp]

There is an answer of course to this, and to the awful damaging effects that 'social media' have on teenagers' lives. Bin the phone.

We all seem to have forgotten how, not so long ago, we had no instant communication. The mobile phone, in its infancy, arrived on the scene as exactly that a MOBILE PHONE. Now the phone function is a tiny part of a massively powerful handheld computer connected via the www to a world full of total strangers, many with evil intent.

There is a simple answer.......

[Dave2002]

Consider, though - that this forum is itself a form of 'social media'. Where do you draw the line?

[ardcarp]

Yes. The contradicton occurred to me of course. But I'd very reluctantly manage without The Forum if I thought it would heal the woes of others.

[Dave2002]

I can remember going to two events in the early 21st Century - a few years apart. At the first computer facilities were available - for writing documents and just doing "general" work. At the second internet connections were available. It was hard to get onto the internet connections, but preparing documents etc. was easy as nobody wanted the machines which didn't have internet. Since then we've had wireless connectivity, and video streaming, and all of this now via mobile phones.

So how far back would you want to go?

If you want any form of internet would you want access to be only local, national, continent wide? There would be consequences following any such restrictions. There might (??!!) be less criminal abuse, but there might be other forms of abuse, such as state monitoring of individuals and only news items favouring any state approved views. A reversion to more traditional forms of news - newspapers, TV, radio - but the issue of control would reappear then.

[Bryn]

Consider, though - that this forum is itself a form of 'social media'. Where do you draw the line?

Moderation in all things, especially moderation.

[gurnemanz]

Monbiot inserted clips showing the activities of the East German State Security Ministry from the film, Das Leben der Anderen. They were certainly meticulous snoopers (as I know from personal experience) with one agent per 6.5 citizens but when it came to it they failed to spot that the socialist state which they were there to protect and uphold was about to collapse. Information overload? It must be a dreary and often futile job for all snoopers to have to sift through all the mostly trivial data they garner in the search for any useful nuggets. I think I would be as worried about the incompetence of surveillance organisations as their all-pervading intrusion into privacy. I think of the famous Communist Party cell in the USA, all of whose members were CIA infiltrators. In le Carré the intelligence setup consisting of spies, counterspies, traitors, double and triple agents seemed to render the whole system a bit dodgy.

[Serial_Apologist]

Monbiot inserted clips showing the activities of the East German State Security Ministry from the film, Das Leben der Anderen. They were certainly meticulous snoopers (as I know from personal experience) with one agent per 6.5 citizens but when it came to it they failed to spot that the socialist state which they were there to protect and uphold was about to collapse. Information overload? It must be a dreary and often futile job for all snoopers to have to sift through all the mostly trivial data they garner in the search for any useful nuggets. I think I would be as worried about the incompetence of surveillance organisations as their all-pervading intrusion into privacy. I think of the famous Communist Party cell in the USA, all of whose members were CIA infiltrators. In le Carré the intelligence setup consisting of spies, counterspies, traitors, double and triple agents seemed to render the whole system a bit dodgy.

Yes it's rather analogous to the old story of the woman in the vinegar bottle - counter-checks to check on checks, checks to counter counter-checks, etc etc ad infinitum. Eventually, as was found to be true of cybernetic models many decades ago, the system confronts collapse through overload as solutions fail to keep up with input. And so new and faster technological methods of keeping in step are developed to stave off ultimate catastrophe brought about by over-dependence, each stage being more and more difficult to police for breaches in security, overseen, as gurney points out, by humans sat before screens, or algorhythms set according to inherently limited parameters. One of such breaches concerns satellite systems world communications have become dependent on, which are now endangered by hostile actions from whichever state wants to be top dog in a battle for dwindling resources on an overheating planet, in more senses than one.

Were all this to collapse humanity would be forced to revert to time-honoured means of communication and knowledge dissemination, re-vitalising and re-equipping those sectors which have been forced to close shedding millions of socially useful jobs in the name of a turbo-charged capitalism now totally out of control. Humanity would have to slow down, put limits on how far technology can go before its advantages become our problems, and give the natural rhythms that keep life afloat a chance to recover.