[mindcrime]

> You're suggest technical solutions to social problems, and those rarely work out in the long term, especially with adversarial parties. Better to solve the problem at the source.

That, to me, was the big takeaway from Attack Surface by Cory Doctorow. The idea that you can't "out tech" the State[1]. Because even if you, as an individual, are in fact (smarter|more talented|more capable) than any individual employed by the State, they still have you out-resourced to a degree that makes your cleverness moot. And as a defender, you only have to make one mistake and it's game over.

If I get Cory's point right, it's to say something like "as technologists, we should use our skills in service of effecting meaningful change through the democratic process", as opposed to creating better tech for evading State surveillance[2].

[1]: I think here you could probably read "the State" as "the State AND/OR BigCorps".

[2]: That said, there's probably still at least some basis for doing both. But "effecting change through the democratic process" is probably the better long-term strategy.