|=[ 0x01 ]=---=[ Hacker Luddites - anonymous ]=--------------------------=|
In the west, far gone are the days of slavery. Men live freely with their
minds and bodies. So the idea of technology potentially limiting these
things is absurd.
Computer technology today might not always encourage these principles of
free mind and body though. Hardware and software is increasingly built in
the same manner as stone walled gardens, restricting those outside the
inner circles of technocrats. The designers decide to clutch tightly to
their systems, defining the full set of actions allowable and therefore
thinkable on their systems. They are limiting the potential for
creativity, discovery, and reason in order to further profit. This profit
is furthered by control because certain control limits piracy, stops
malicious software from propagating, simplifies the user experience for
the majority of consumers, and creates revenue through software-regulated
micro decisions that constrain the full capacity of the hardware and
software systems being sold.
Only the masters of the garden, the designers, are allowed inside the
stone walls, where they are free to create and are conscious of the inner
workings and plans. Those outside are not allowed inside the garden. Those
who are not inside the circle of the original creators do not get to
create without delegated permission. And consumers and third-party
developers are too far down the caste system to be allowed arbitrary
control of their own possessions.
This leaves the creators on the outside of the stoned walls dependent on
brilliant and dedicated minds to bypass the wishes of the designers. These
brilliant minds attain a level of consciousness about the constraints of
the system that the designers themselves did not understand, and pass this
on to the masses. Along the way come miscreants, thieves, and pirates.
In a free market system, if more arbitrary creation is vital in the long
term, then more creative systems will arise to fill the need. In the short
term, allowing feedback from the outer castes and integrating their ideas
has been shown to be more than sufficient for sustained exponential growth
on the rise to market domination.
Hacker Luddite: (Oxymoron) A person opposed to technology that greatly
limits, through artificial means, human potential for consciousness,
reason, or creativity with that same technology.
Hacker Luddites hate stone wall garden technologies. Why shouldn't a
person be allowed to hold a piece of technology and attempt to modify or
adapt that technology to suit their will at any given moment? The only
limitation should be the consciousness required to make changes. And
certainly not artificially restricted by the designers of the technology.
In the same way that Kant based the premises of the categorical imperative
on the ability for humans to reason, Hacker Luddites view this capacity
for reason as a fundamentally important human ability. When computer
technology, purchased and entirely in the physical possession of the
owner, denies arbitrary modification and creation, it greatly reduces the
ability to reason about the universe with that technology. That technology
does not allow people to transcend the designers ideas and fully embrace
some of their most important human traits. Instead it delegates the
consumers to subordinates with restricted consciousness, and restricted
capacity for reason, and restricted creativity.
Next up, computer technology applied excessively for the conversion of
human attention into personal profit.
To the hacker luddites, another nefarious category is the computer systems
of the world which have been built to turn human attention into profit.
Rather than proceeds coming from the advancement of humanity, the proceeds
come primarily from the ability to guide human attention into that
technological system. The system might be making the profit through ads,
or it could be a game consumers pay for.
It is understood that resources are required to run technologies and that
some exchange of information and resources is expected between consumers
and creators of that technology. Ads can be helpful to a consumer by
showing them products which they actually want, and games or sites for
information exchange are highly enjoyable to many people and therefore
provide benefit. It is when the methods and means become excessive that
hacker luddites take an issue.
When technologies, whether delivering advertisements or games, exploit
human psychology and physiology to turn a profit from their consumers,
they may often be directly limiting, and in a significant way, the
consciousness, reason, or creativity of that consumer.
The other problem is when instead of advertisements showing people what
they want, advertisements subconsciously manipulate peoples desires (such
as sex, popularity, and power) to override their consciousness and
reasoning abilities to get them to want and purchase products regardless
of the products abilities to help the consumer attain those desires.
And what if technologies instead of providing an opportunity for
relaxation or fun or profound information sharing or whatever also create
systems of psychological control where neurophysics brings users attention
back to technology to get addictive releases of dopamine or serotonin or
who knows what, using the darker arts of gamification. Or perhaps innate
human survival mechanisms related to group dynamics are being exploited by
the technology, such as showing automatically generated advertisements,
messages, and symbols as endorsed by members of a group, or creating
virtual resource systems where drives for competition or collaboration
drive behavior.
It may be that these technologies which capture human attention are simply
what most consumers want from their technology, after all 30% of internet
traffic generated by humans is for porn [1]. If distraction and the
subordination of reason, creativity, or consciousness is the will of the
majority, Hacker Luddites seriously disagree with the majority and most
definitely oppose the designers that subordinate them.
What defenses does the modern person have to protect against the likes and
tweets and clicks and slide to unlocks and checkmarks and tabs and porn
and endless dopamine and serotonin harvesting mechanisms? These systems
were sometimes built to reap monetary gain, sometimes built for
communication control, and sometimes for nothing of any value... in
exchange for a portion of the time, attention, and thoughts of the user as
well as their information...
Don't buy and don't use them.
If you do use them, use the them only in great moderation and only at
consciously specified times.
Inform others and expose existing and emerging technologies which may be
limiting human potential.
Augment the technology in your possession to block advertisements.
Degrade the quality or value of your attention to the attention-to-profit
technologies by:
Similarly, make your information more useless by lying.
[1] http://www.extremetech.com/computing/123929-just-how-big-are-porn-sites
-- 30% of the internet traffic out there is porn