Fwd: [Dewayne-Net] Edward Snowden may be the last of the human spies
Edward Snowden may be the last of the human spies In future, the public may never be alerted to NSA-type revelations because surveillance is fast becoming automated By Christopher Steiner, guardian.co.uk 29 June 2013 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/29/edward-snowden-last-human-s ies>
Kurt Vonnegut once opined: "Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power." That power corrupts is hardly debatable. For that reason, the evolution of espionage has run in parallel with the development of organised tribes of human beings that we now refer to as countries.
Human nature makes it predictable that organisations such as the NSAwould be cataloguing phone calls and other electronic interactions between humans. But Edward Snowden's revelations also tell us how far electronic snooping has yet to go. While the din of outrage still resonates, we should be thankful that Snowden — a human being — actually exists. In the future, the world may never be alerted to such breaches of privacy because there will be no humans involved in spying at all. Just as algorithms have conquered our stock markets and our musical tastes, so too will they conquer surveillance. Even the most human of tasks, snooping, will become the province of the bots.
While it's true that the surveillance Snowden spotlighted is of a new and digital variety, it still required human levers to give it any meaning. TheNSA, for example, using its call log data, would take an interest in people who repeatedly dialled the phone numbers of known troublemakers. Human agents would query the call-logging database and find out who a prime target in Yemen might be speaking with inside the US. The data is collected passively and electronically, but much of the intelligence and the methods to derive it come straight from human minds. But what will happen when a machine makes the rules?
[snip]
EFTA00964215
Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: http://www.warpspeed.com/wordpress
FYI - interesting
And so great that yr getting to know Joi better & helping his wife/dogs move!
Хо
Typos, misspellings courtesy of iPhone word & thought substitution.
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dewayne Hendricks < Date: July 2, 2013, 7:32:01 AM PDT To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Edward Snowden may be the last of the human spies Reply-To:
Edward Snowden may be the last of the human spies In future, the public may never be alerted to NSA-type revelations because surveillance is fast becoming automated By Christopher Steiner, guardian.co.uk 29 June 2013 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/29/edward-snowden-last-human-s ies>
Kurt Vonnegut once opined: "Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power." That power corrupts is hardly debatable. For that reason, the evolution of espionage has run in parallel with the development of organised tribes of human beings that we now refer to as countries.
Human nature makes it predictable that organisations such as the NSAwould be cataloguing phone calls and other electronic interactions between humans. But Edward Snowden's revelations also tell us how far electronic snooping has yet to go. While the din of outrage still resonates, we should be thankful that Snowden — a human being — actually exists. In the future, the world may never be alerted to such breaches of privacy because there will be no humans involved in spying at all. Just as algorithms have conquered our stock markets and our musical tastes, so too will they conquer surveillance. Even the most human of tasks, snooping, will become the province of the bots.
While it's true that the surveillance Snowden spotlighted is of a new and digital variety, it still required human levers to give it any meaning. TheNSA, for example, using its call log data, would take an interest in people who repeatedly dialled the phone numbers of known troublemakers. Human agents would query the call-logging database and find out who a prime target in Yemen might be speaking with inside the US. The data is collected passively and electronically, but much of the intelligence and the methods to derive it come straight from human minds. But what will happen when a machine makes the rules?
[snip]
EFTA00964215
Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: http://www.warpspeed.com/wordpress