Comment by nonrandomstring
2 years ago
Love the narrative style of this writing second-guessing the erroneous thought processes. Are they deceptive? Who knows.
What worries me is that it's neither malice nor incompetence, but that a new darker force has entered our world even at those tables with the highest stakes.... dispassion and indifference.
It's hard to get good people these days. A lot of people stopped caring. Even amongst the young and eager. Whether it's climate change, the world economic situation, declining education, post pandemic brain-fog, defeat in the face of AI, chemicals in the water.... everywhere I sense a shrug of slacking off, lying low, soft quitting, and generally fewer fucks are given all round.
Maybe that's just my own fatigue, but in security we have to vigilant all the time and there's only so much energy humans can bring to that. That's why I worry that we will lose against AI. Not because it's smarter, but because it doesn't have to _care_, whereas we do.
Bad systems beat good people.
There are a lot of symptoms to distract yourself with. Focus on the game instead.
A society full of good people will sort out the rest.
This apathy is an interesting phenomenon, let's not ignore it. The Internet has brought us a wealth of knowledge but it has also shown us how truly chaotic the world really is. And negativity is a profitable way to drive engagement, so damn near everyone can see how problematic our society is. And when the algorithm finds something you care to be sad about, it will show you more, more, and ever more all the way into depression.
This is the lasting legacy of the Internet, now. Not freedom for all to seek and learn, but freedom for the negativity engines to seek out your brain and suck you into personal obliteration.
A society of good people? Nobody really cares any more. And I do agree with the gp; if you look, you can see it everywhere. What is this going to become? Collective helplessness as we eek out what little bits of personal fulfillment we can get in between endless tragedy and tantalizing promise?
Bad systems beat good people.
Everything you listed is valid (through one lens), but they are symptoms. Distract yourself with symptoms and you'll never solve the problem.
Application Service Providers, as they exist today, are bad systems.
They provide tremendous value, that's why they exist. But they also carry tremendous cost. So far, nobody has solved the cost without compromising the value.
If you want to fix the web, moving us closer to a free and open web, stay hyper focused on solving the cost without compromising the value.
First past the post voting is a bad system.
In the U.S. you don't solve politics by voting for candidates, that's treating symptoms.
If you are a staunch republican, vote republican. If you are a staunch democrat, vote democrat.
Everyone else should be hyper focused on one thing: ballot reform.
If you want to solve the problem, focus on the game and solve it. A society full of good, but currently defeated, people will do the rest.
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The car is on fire and there is no driver at the wheel.
Bollocks to the car. It's the rest of us innocent pedestrians who need to take cover. :)