| > The GAR2022 blames these disasters on a broken perception of risk
based on “optimism, underestimation and invincibility,” which leads
to policy, finance and development decisions that exacerbate
existing vulnerabilities and put people in danger. The most fatal expression I have heard is that "We need to push
through". In Digital Vegan I describe this mentality thus: "I feel there is more hope that one can survive a car crash by
accelerating at a wall to more cleanly demolish it. Instead we must
learn the self-discipline and endure the pain of being able to
disconnect first, in order to build new connections." [2]
Iatrogenics and solutionism, by which we make things worse by trying
to improve them as-is, is now our mode of existence. Stopping that
requires humility. Falliblism is the ability to realise you are going
the wrong way and turn around, despite the ego losing face.Surely I am an idiot, but I remain an optimist that human beings can
pull ourselves out of a great collective delusion built on pride and
greed. For example; the GAR2022 statement perfectly describes the state of
cybersecurity. I recall a point around 2019, before the pandemic when
major breaches and incidents got to occurring once per day. I had a
feeling that the world was finally taking notice and something could
now be done. Then suddenly it vanished from the news cycle. When
something is happening daily, it's no longer news. Covid-19 then
eclipsed all threads of reflection and we plunged deeper into the very
forms of cybernetic technofascism and blind dependency we needed to
avoid. It's now become impossible to research or teach anything but the most
cartoon version of computer security - one that holds the established
mythologies harmless and allows profitable abuses to continue. There
is no permitted narrative that doesn't compound the errors we are
already making [1] for the sake of those who have power. There is too
much resting on not comprehending the big picture and finding
human-centred solutions. A generation of smart young people who could
help us are left frustrated. I think similar things are happening in other areas of human
intellectual endeavour now, climate, transport, health, education. We
have not valued competencies, but instead put prideful appearance
before reality. We have a bleak crisis of leadership. We cannot face
the onslaught of challenges by reason alone as we are all fatigued
already by tyranny, pestilence, looming poverty and war. The first step is "When you're in a hole, stop digging". We need to curb enthusiasm and withdraw support, even tacit, for many
of the "sacred" norms. We must reject monotonism and the idea that
progress is a "inevitable" scalar. That is not a rejection of
technology, or neo-Luddism. Computer people should at least recognise
that it is called "back-tracking". [1] http://techrights.org/2021/11/29/teaching-cybersecurity/ [2] https://digitalvegan.net |
OT: But may i ask if you (reminding me on a fictive guy named "Baron von Münchhausen") do you mean 'optimistic' in terms of: 'You not only have to consume the advertising, feel invited to make our next ads better, write cheering feedback, get in touch with our company ! (without any surplus for you, sorry!)' Than...than ...yes than, i am sure -you became an "'I did it'-people" ?.... P-: