Comment by felooboolooomba
2 months ago
> they can never be taken away
Your right to 3d print whatever you want is about to be taken away (in California).
What software you can run on your computer can already be restricted.
Absolutely everything can be taken away. The simplest way to remove open models is probably to declare them a tool that terrorists could use. Crazy? Yes, the world is totally crazy these days.
That only affects people in California. Whereas Fable being shut down affects people all over the world.
There's also, importantly, a distinction between what are told we can no longer use, and what can actually be taken away.
Open source and open hardware can be called illegal by a government, but, if we collectively invest our energy into open alternatives, they can't be taken away in the same sense. I can build a RepRap printer and I can use a local AI model. It's on all of us to make sure that the open alternatives are viable, maybe in the current global political reality now more than ever.
Making something illegal isn't a disincentive for everyone. When they start banning books, some of us start assembling printing presses.
Believe me, if the government wants to stop you from having access to something like that, they could do it. Just give people some incentive to report you and make really harsh punishments and everyone will be thinking really hard about how bad they want have access.
19 replies →
> That only affects people in California
2 replies →
Just like declaring piracy illegal stopped piracy and removed pirated materials from everyone's computers.
Everything cannot, in fact, be taken away. Don't propagandize yourself. Some things, like information, are free. Not even China can prevent all its citizens from accessing Western internet. USGov simply does not have the resources to find and audit every hard drive and USB stick in the country for illegal files. The internet cannot be censored 100% without literally cutting every cable and confiscating every radio.
The software that runs on my computer cannot, in fact, be restricted. It can be declared illegal, but there literally is no mechanism by which it can be enforced other than a government goon standing over my shoulder 24/7.
Some freedoms really cannot be removed without utterly implausible amounts of effort. Arguing otherwise is helping to erode freedom. So stop it.
Maybe we can each get assigned an AI government goon to look over our shoulders 24/7. Maybe each neuron in my brain will have their own subagent goon. Each mitochondria gets their own subagent government goon. The government will perfectly model my every move. They will perfectly model the smell of my asparagus piss aroma.
You wouldn't download a car?
In Soviet Russia, one couldn't download a car. In modern America, cars upload you.
Remote attestation?
On PCs, the best you could really do is restrict access to certain websites on certain boxes with TPMs the users can't disable. Remote attestation can lock people out of your stuff, but not out of their own stuff. For that you need control of the device. Of course, most mobile phones aren't easy for the user to have control of, but most PCs still are, so long as you scrub the rootkits (e.g. windows) off 'em
it doesnt even work in the government's own servers to protect their own shit
Anything can be taken away, yes.
But in a free and democratic society, there's an enormous difference between "the democratically chosen state powers may take something from me" and "a private entity takes away something from me on an inscrutable whim with no recourse".
Neither is good if you don't want the thing taken away. But removing the second mechanism is still a laudable goal.
I think one is worse than two. Only governments have the power of violence.
Currently there's very much of a blur between "democratically chosen state" and "a private entity" (with a lot of money).
And we want them to. And to have the power to take things away. It's all a matter of degree and details.
There’s going to be more and more propaganda about open models being a tool to program your children into being Chinese spies or some other absurd reason, and then a new beautiful law will be enacted unanimously, banning their use. And “thankfully," child-protecting measures will by then be implemented at the OS level.
> What software you can run on your computer can already be restricted.
Are laws that are inherently unenforceable even laws?
With the age verification and whatnot, these laws are getting more enforceable with time.
Legality doesn’t matter as long as you use open source tools. Buy hardware that you can load your own software or firmware on. Keep backups of the software that you use. Nobody can take away an open weight model sitting on my NAS. Almost everything my family uses is self hosted. Stop depending on the government and companies to do the right thing.
> What software you can run on your computer can already be restricted.
Yes, over my dead body.
> Your right to 3d print whatever you want is about to be taken away (in California).
What are they going to do? Fine me for not updating my printer's firmware?
Well that's true isn't it? If your goal is to blow up the proverbial Death Star, you want to be running your AI locally, right?
Your right to 3d print has been taken away, but not your ability.