Simple: Web + VC = Surveillance Capitalism* ___ * When you drop the client/server (centralised) architecture of the Web into an enzymatic vat of Venture Capital that incentivises cancer-like growth of the servers (centres) followed by exits, you get Surveillance Capitalism.https://twitter.com/vergesskrieg/status/995196604939423744 …
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Call the Web (“the Cloud”) by its true name: Mainframe 2.0. We’ve regressed from owning and using our own machines in the democratic era of the personal computer to once again using other people’s machines. Our new mainframes are the Googles and the Facebooks.
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The pendulum of technological topology: Mainframe (centralised) → Personal Computer (decentralised) → Mainframe 2.0 (centralised) → Personal Network (decentralised) Today, we’re in the midst of the swing from the Mainframe 2.0 era to the Personal Network era.
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How quickly (and if) we can swing the pendulum from the Mainframe 2.0 era to the Personal Network era will determine – perhaps more than any other factor, including current hierarchical/organised politics – the state of our human rights and democracy in the digital/networked age.
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And, of course, whether & how quickly the pendulum swings from the Mainframe 2.0 era to the Personal Network era depends not solely on the lines of code we write but also on the funding (or lack thereof) & the support/barriers enacted by current politics so engagement is crucial.
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However, having now experienced the internal dynamics of even a left-wing/progressive hierarchical political movement/party, it’s clear hierarchical political structures cannot reform a centralised system (thereby making themselves redundant) unless that is their core mission.
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So while we must engage with current hierarchical/organised politics to effect the change we need, the goal of the change is to imbue individuals with the infrastructure they need to express political agency without need of hierarchical political organisations.
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Replying to @aral
It's not just about infrastructure, though that is important. Anything which reduces the network effect of the silos will help. Antitrust. Browsers with ad blocking by default. Cultural projects in art/music to make decentralization desirable. Schools teaching internet topics.
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Yes, indeed. Hence the need to engage with current politics. We must regulate and replace.
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