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0 pointsgAI2y ago0 comments

That's due to learned associations between being observed and being shamed or controlled.

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4 comments · 2 top-level

kortilla2y ago· 1 in thread

Yes, and? That’s like saying “you’re only afraid to touch the burner due to learned associations between touching it and getting burned.”

As long as there is a person with access to that surveillance, it will be used to shame and control people. If England had the surveillance it has today 100 years ago, they would have ousted Alan Turing for being gay long before he would have had the chance to help them win the war.

gAIOP2y ago

I'm not sure that wielding information as a weapon is as integral to human behavior as heat is to burns. I hope not, anyway. Maybe it is, but freedom isn't unique to us.

xethos2y ago· 1 in thread

Then give me (hell, you pick a person) complete access to your communications. Give up all privacy, even just for this given person. Will you still be free? Or somewhere along the line, does information turn into power?

gAIOP2y ago

A hammer won't turn into a weapon unless it's wielded as such. Privacy is necessary for freedom only because humans have a rich history of wielding information as a weapon. If we can't learn to have power without using it to control others, we won't survive as a species.

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