I wrote this about 2.5 years ago and sadly it's more true today than it was then.
Pretty, ain't it? Let's not fuck it up, eh?
Wise people can go to China, the trouble is that they cannot continue to be as wise as they were in China. Wise people can also go to North Korea. I don't know your point of view really, but I want to finish off my comment by saying that after living in China I came to realize very clearly that the government in China is in no way an organization that can be framed (in an honest way, anyway-- many people will try to do this, but they'll only be looking at the downsides, and of course in doing so they will make themselves wrong, because that's what happens when you only consider one part of a complex issue) as something that is entirely bad for the world. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that there are a great number of things it's done that have been downright great.
At times, it's damned impressive, really.
At the same time, I've got to tell you that personally, as the censorship became more pervasive during my time in China, I could no longer stand to live there-- and honestly, I love China and relate deeply to the modern Chinese mindset. There are AWESOME things happening in China, and I wish the world could know more about those things, because I don't see in China a threat, really, but instead, on a global basis, an opportunity.
.....But strangling the worldwide network of business, leisure, and most importantly-- human knowledge (even if it is spied upon by..... every government with the capability to spy on it) that is NOT one of the awesome things happening in China today. It is a short sighted play by people who seem to have forgotten that the best leadership MUST lead fearlessly.
China and the Chinese people do have every right to forge their own path; other countries should respect this insofar as it does not rob the Chinese people of basic human liberties, which personally, I include access to the compendium of human thought, if it is so easily available as it is to day, I certainly include in the concept of "basic human liberties." Further still, the censorship of the web-- in my mind more than any other initiative of China's government-- isolates China from global thought in a very harmful way. (Remember: I fully grasp they're not the problem-- when any organization-- even one that makes mistakes-- lifts so many people out of poverty-- it's hard to say with a straight face that it's just bad)
Oh, and I get the security argument, but here's the counter-argument: there is no security-- no real security-- in systems that are connected to networks. Time and again this has proven to be nearly impossible to realize. I bring this up because I don't believe that GFW, or any other technology, for that matter, can save us from the spy programs of countries like the United States, and while I condemn China's censorship, I condemn, hopefully in a voice that is equally loud, US programs like Prism that are taking the ridiculously misguided approach to (1) security and (2) developing an artificial general intelligence of collecting every datapoint, on every person, that can be collected. Both practices are deeply harmful to the desperately needed development of a truly collaborative global status quo, under which the norm is interlingual, inter-cultural, international collaboration towards the greater human good. Your comment set this off within me, because I want you to know that the rest of the world-- all of us using this network, "the Internet" (or most anyway, there are some real idiots out there,but as you know, that's a global problem, and today's idiot is tomorrow's genius) we'd like your thought, very much, and me personally with my experiences in China I'm dead certain that Chinese thought can contribute greatly to building this improved global society.
--BUT-- today you're shut out. --AND-- today, in order to access many of the thoughts, trends and concepts from outside of China, as you pointed out-- you can, but I'd like to point out-- it's such a pain in the ass today, that few Chinese people bother to do it, and indeed, that is by design. I also think that if China's leadership understood fully the losses that this censorship was causing, there's not a chance that they'd continue to pursue this harmful strategy. There's SO MUCH to be happy about in China today-- I left there with mixed feelings and miss the place daily. For me though, and for so many others in situations like mine, it was too uncomfortable, knowing that I couldn't' truly access the thing that I think will bring the most good to all humanity over the next century, and honestly, I think that thing is the web. I know that you, individually, there's probably nothing you can do about any of this. I'm not advocating you overthrow your government or any other reactionary solution. I only want to share this, and hope that gradually, enough people read this and with any luck-- maybe some of those people will have positions allowing them to safely change this.
To you personally, I guess this is kind of a mixed message, but if I didn't let you know that
SIMULTANEOUSLY
I think China has accomplished one of humankind's greatest and most important feats, largely through an experiment in governance and finance that can be called neither communism nor capitalism: In China today there's a solid 600 million to 1 billion people who are no longer poor, who are moving into the world of ideas and concepts instead of the world of "where do I get my next meal?" This is truly holy work by any measure. People who piss on this accomplishment are to be pissed on themselves for their crass way of overlooking the true evil that is systemic poverty.
I think that the Internet, insofar as it forms a compendium of human knowledge, ought to be an unquestioned, and global right-- and that a free Chinese Internet would NOT lead directly to some kind of revolution or chaos in China. I think that frankly-- the chief limitation for China and Chinese on the brink of the next wave of technologically driven change is in fact the censorship.
I think that any country's use of the web as a primary means of spying— for whatever reason— is a) ineffective and b) immoral. The US has so many whistle-blowers like Snowden, and the thing they keep saying, which I think is really important is this: Not only is this system immoral and offensive to basic human dignity, it is also ineffective. All it does is strangle free thought— there is no other positive outcome, including to the security of anyone on earth, including Americans..... Except the creation of an artifical general intelligence.... and the trouble about that is that nobody really knows if that is a positive thing or not. I certainly don't know.
It's a pickle. I know so many in the tech world, we feel like we are at the cusp of something unprecedented-- that if we keep working hard, that one day soon, we might be able to provide all people with a good living and the opportunity to join this world of thoughts, and it might be optimistic of me, but optimism is a crime I'm guilty of: I do think we can get there, and in fact I think it is the only goal worth working towards today. It's highly worth noting: This was Marx's goal. This is not lost on me-- however, I think that his adherents in the 20th century got one thing crucially wrong: People do really poorly under the control of others, but-- when left to their own devices, can accomplish beautiful, complex, incredible, utterly indescribable feats of imagination, science, commerce, and more, so whilst I adhere to so many of Marx's tenets, and consider what he worked towards as the highest priority for all people, I think that much of what went wrong has to do with either:
Paranoia on the parts of both capitalist and communist societies.
The failure of some to fully grasp Marx's goal-- his end vision, and one that I think that we can all easily agree on: A society without poverty, where wealth is so widespread, that no one NEEDS to care about property the way that one does today. We're not there, but the exponential curves of technology's growth give me some hope. I'm certain that hardline communist economics won't get us there, and I'm equally certain that unrestrained capitalism won't get us there either.
I think that the only hope for arriving at this goal (which, I might add-- is NOT a future free from toil-- I'm sure we will still toil, and life will still be the beautiful struggle that it is today, because that does not seem like something we can change-- in my opinion, it's inherent to being human) -- is technology. So, what can we do? We can disregard all else-- at least in terms of bringing this beautiful life-- because some things that will not get us to the place our species ought to go include:
- Capitalism
- Communism
- Socialism
- Militarism
- Nationalism
- Patriotism (except— maybe— global patriotism— the more we think about our global contexts, the better it is for everyone AND—we don't know if/when/how ET might pop up, but consider this for a moment: Ground-up human brain tissue might be an aphrodisiac for them. Or maybe they like to sniff dried-up human blood, the way humans like to sniff cocaine. The point is that no matter what the condition, there's always something more productive we could be doing when compared to building weapons.)
- Religion
- Pessimism
- Mercantalism, or any of its modern variants
- Censorship
- Limitations of any type on individual liberties
In fact, I challenge anyone to really brush up on some history. Some might say that the Internet is about (at most) forty years old, but I think they're actually off by around 100 years. Humans began to communicate using networks at the advent of telegraphy, and I'd like to argue that there's no discernible difference in these methods of electronically assisted binary communication over previously unheard of distances. That is when the true blossoming of global wealth began to become a real driver of progress, and well, in my opinion, we've got all of modern society because of electronic binary communications, and modern society is the first time that the life of the average person has TRULY improved, EVER, in all of history, THEREFORE:
Screwing with these networks should be deeply taboo in any society claiming to work towards the best interests of humanity-- no all-encompassing spy programs, and no censorship. I hope this comes to pass, because I see two possible futures, each starkly different from the other. In one, all people have access to all knowledge, and everyone participates in the shaping of a society that reaches out to the stars with unbridled optimism-- I hope for this, deeply, and I yearn for my work to contribute to it. I believe there is no higher calling for any person today.
In the other possible future, which-- I tell you-- frightens me to the core-- technologies more powerful than I have the capacity to imagine are unleashed by men onto other men, and one or another of these technologies makes the planet uninhabitable. Note, that I work in tech, and so as these things go, I've got to think that it's likely I can imagine much more than many, thought not as much as some, as I'm no great thinker. Just know that this future is so far from our potential that, well, it's too depressing to think about for long.
Please, help our species get to future number one-- it is truly all that matters.
So, go out, and if you're feeling particularly motivated today, work on some technology, and then-- make it something that everyone can do by making it mass-scale and cheap. This doesn't happen through pure communism or capitalism and can take a lifetime, but as far as I can tell, it's our only true shot at a better tomorrow for all. Our divisions ought not define us for one second longer, because we risk robbing one another of a future too beautiful to pass up on. Maybe technology is not your thing-- that's alright-- I bet that you can teach someone a skill, and they might be able to use that skill to improve their lives-- that's also a massive contribution, and laudable in its own right. If we are to have learned anything form the 20th Century, please, let it be that we as average folk, we can trust no entity of whatever form or philosophy to work towards our best interests. We only have each other. Anyone leading you to work against your fellow man probably doesn't deserve your respect as your leader-- anyone trying to scare you with threats of "the bad guys in XXXXXX part of the world".... aren't going to help you see the truth: we're all deeply flawed, but just one thing makes a clear, provable difference, and that is the continued development of science and technology that IS NOT centered around destruction and war. The creation of weapons, and their use, it is not some inevitable thing-- it is pure and unmitigated evil. Every penny that goes towards that is a penny that could have been used to do a billion things that are much better than keeping a decaying nation-state at the ready for warfare.
Trust only yourself, and that which you can prove to be trustworthy. For me, I think that no government is deserving of my trust, and that's because of their terrible track record in improving life for anyone. I do trust well-intentioned technology development, because looking through history, I don't think that any one thing has had so much impact in so little time-- nothing, in my opinion, even scratches the surface-- and these changes are exponential-- they get bigger and bigger at each iteration as we apply knowledge to other knowledge to create still more knowledge. War and poverty stop people from participating in this-- these people are being robbed of participation in the great upside of the human experience -- and this is unjustifiable, when we've come so far. I can and will add more to this, I think it's very, very important for all of us to realize and act on, and I hope that we can exceed every incredible vision for the future-- even Marx's while providing genuine liberty for all people-- if I was a believer, this is what I'd pray for, too. It is truly worthy of your dedication, and no matter who you are, I formally request your participation in the most important effort we've ever put forth as a species: The total elimination of poverty through the transformation of society using technologies that make a life much better than that of yesterday's royalty affordable to all, and universal participation in this society.
Amen.