the expansion of research surveillance actually only opens to new research interests the hidden and almost disused wealth accumulated at public expense over generations.
I don't suspect that my views are sympathetic with the majority of people on hn but that's why I wrote this here - admittedly in hope of being found of some interest briefly even if my comment is voted down and invisible unless the reader chooses to see down voted comments especially
the existence of a surveillance state isn't possible to dispute
it cannot be reasonably argued against
but for the whole of my life I have only seen polar argument and political alignment with essentially bipolar and absolutely extreme positions of pro or con the enforcement of powers that is carried out by technology using the very kind of skills we otherwise would applaud Cellebrite vulns aside
why don't we seek to fix this problem altogether?
the argument is always the powers that be can't be trusted somehow
that's saying that we cannot write software good enough to actually enforce the application of and obedience to the rules!
the Clipper chip was not merely lobbied against but the whole idea of trusted proxies was turned into the devil incarnate
and this precluded the creation of proxies who we can trust using software that we know is secure
modern life completely depends on trusted intermediaries and proxies
if we leave it up to the government to become the sole provider because we succeed in persuading the public that such proxies are far too dangerous for anyone to handle iunder normal conditions the government will only declare the conditions prevailing are the necessary exception and declare the state of national security risks to override the misguided public sentiment we've created to be defeated by because our ill considered argument was based largely on the risks of bad implementation and backdoors which are susceptible to the government saying that the government has sufficiently skilled programmers in the nsa thanking you very much case concluded....
the same infrastructure I've discussed to track research documents is what businesses desire for their own security and individuals benefit from by keeping private correspondence private and reverse engineering efforts to prove that their work is clean of contamination by the target design they're reversing...
this is all perfectly valid public service and benefit
we need to launch as many proxy services as possible in front of promoting a solution like this generally
the potential for micro payment for access to information enabled by this system is a natural benefit only possible because the infrastructure costs are sunk for other reasons
(I never understood how proponents of micro payments couldn't appreciate that eg the costs of cash currency is already borne by the state and makes the cost of cash transactions small only because of the costs being assumed in order to provide the greater societal benefits of a fiat currency and state borrowing for shared development)
the USA right now could make a resounding and historical decision to pardon the SciHub administrators and declare a war on copyright abuses through the means enabled by document management systems such as mentioned above.
this won't be popular with the technical elites of today
that's just impossible because we're trapped by history in the middle of a impossible to resolve battle of ideology surrounding the public good of very new forms of communication still very far from widespread appreciation let alone understanding.
times of historical fighting between opposed groups of people very large in number as is true for the privacy debate of today is exactly when our government is most needed to intercede with decisive policy making.
if Biden could choose one way to be remembered that I could suggest that will be to make unambiguous and clear law for the transparency of software and hardware exploit use and repair and simultaneously eliminate all crimes against copyright of unlawful distribution by legislation enabling improved distribution possibly in ways I've just suggested are possible.
my personal belief is that a disproportionate amount of the energies of our youngest citizens today and especially the ones who are statistically most likely to be beneficial contributors to our future only because the arguments for privacy and security of computing have already become too significant a feature of daily life to be ignored by promising young men and women in this country and among our allies and friends worldwide. the devastating impact of ransom ware upon a hopeful student in microcosm cannot be underestimated and such as this must not be tolerated by any responsible government for society of today and especially all our tomorrow. zero day exploit research and solutions and defence in depth including the augmentation of privacy tools currently in the target sights of too many legislators and lobbyists and corporate interests must be solved by peaceful and fair means with a level of urgency unrecognisable to everyone who is concerned about such things now. The problem and especially the bad actors concerned about this and especially those criminally profiteering and living upon the proceeds of such crimes at the same time as attacking and harming our national infrastructure and worst of all the trust and faith we hold in one another and in particular our government, must be attached and defeated with unprecedented speed and final utilisation of national public and private resources combined in fundamental central and above all precise and clear mutual agreement.
