Re:Power in the Age of the Feudal Internet
by MichaelMoser123 on Monday August 01, 2016 @07:14AM
(#12201512)
just to add, this article is from 2013; still we are living in the same era so not much changed.
Here is the original link: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/10/the_battle_fo...
It also first appeared in 'The Atlantic':
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/10/the-ba...
- more transparency of government + ability to organize means more power to grassroots organizations
- more data on individuals means more power to corporations and governments
- ability to steal data means power to cyber criminals.
What i did not understand is the motivations of each of these actor to curtail his access to data/power? i think Bruce Schneier precisely described the new steady state now what i don't understand is how the system could possibly change.
this reminds me of the transformation of the former Soviet Union : in the nineties a lot of people thought that liberalism is here to stay; you can't just do a dictatorship and censorship in the 21st century etc, etc. However it turned out to be a brief interlude - the new elite is just a repackaged old nomenklatura and state power was never curtailed/balanced by an independent judiciary. Same with the internet - the new gadget couldn't change the power balance, it just took them some time to adapt. TLDR: The criminals were the fastest to adapt (they always do); civil society got something out of the ability to organize but then the balance shifted back to the state and corporations, it just took them some time to get their act together.