We Are Information

  Information has become the new currency of the 21st century. It seems like everyone is champing at the proverbial bit to gather intel on people. I just read an article about a company that uses sensors to track the movements of GPS enabled smartphones in order to gather information about the habits of the smartphones' owners. The collectors of said data process it and sell it to their clients so they can better sell their products and services. As this technology becomes more ubiquitous, the amount of data gathered about our movements and habits will grow exponentially. The question is how much privacy will we lose as a result of this technology? Big Brother already exists to some degree in our society. However, unlike in Orwell's fictional Oceania, this Big Brother hides in plain sight. Instead of Thought Police, we have Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the like. And we voluntarily supply information about ourselves to these sights. Couple that with the information surreptitiously gathered via our smartphones, computers and tablets and the amount of information about us that exists on the Web is probably staggering. Data mining has become very lucrative for some companies and unlike precious metals, it won't run dry. This is a double edged sword we're wielding. In the wrong hands, we could end up prisoners in an information driven techno-dictatorship where our movements and information are constantly tracked and collated in order to keep us in line.

Russia's Stand on Homosexuality

  The Russian government has made it clear that it won't tolerate any pro LGBT demonstrations during the upcoming Winter Olympics. I say there should be all kinds of pro LGBT demonstrations at the Winter Olympics. Peaceful demonstrations only though. There should be pro LGBT symbols displayed everywhere. If Putin doesn't like it, he can shove it up his ass sideways with a dead cat. This fucking old school commie is going to have a hard time quelling protests with the whole world watching. Putin does have his supporters though. That old right wing religious zealot Pat Buchanan has been singing Putin's praises lately. This mentally defective product of an archaic and obsolete mindset has no place in a modern enlightened society. I get so tired of conservatives talking about constitutional rights when they're so intent on denying those rights to groups they don't care for.

The Information Age and Dictatorships

It used to be that all a dictator had to do to prevent information about atrocities committed in their country from getting out was to control the local media outlets and keep outsiders out. That way only the government's views and opinions were disseminated to the populace. Any information they didn't like was brutally and effectively silenced. Now, with the widespread use of social media like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc., it's becoming extremely difficult for them to contain said information. Anybody with a cell phone, computer or tablet can be a reporter and let the world know what's going on in their country. Repressive regimes hate social media because it exists outside their country where they can't control it. They can't send secret police squads to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc. and co-opt them or shut them down. In Orwell's book 1984, all information was controlled by the Ministry of Truth. It controlled every form of information and could even alter the historical record to serve its ends. Become an unperson and all record of you and your life gets erased. You not only cease to exist, you never existed in the first place. That's pretty much impossible to do in the real world now. There is no way someone could erase all trace of your existence and make you an unperson. There's also no way anyone can completely contain the flow of information anymore. They can install all the Internet filters they want in order to block searches they don't like. People will just find a way around them. Information wants to be free.

We Want Information.

America is becoming more and more a police state. The news has been reporting that the NSA has been collecting data regarding all the phone calls made by Verizon customers over a period of time. It seems likely that the other phone companies' data has also been collected as well. The NSA is also building some of data storage facility capable of storing zettabytes of data. They claim that they're collecting this data in order to look for patterns that could provide them with information on terrorists. The problem with this is that they're collecting data on way too many people without a legitimate reason to do so. This violates the Fourth Amendment protection against illegal searches and seizures. The Information Age has given rise to the techno-dictatorship. Our government is attempting to gain unlimited access to every information database in the name of fighting terrorism. Given the amount of information that exists on every citizen, the government could potentially find out damn near anything they wanted to about someone. Checks and balances need to be reestablished before things get out of hand. 9/11 should no longer be used as an excuse for taking away our freedom. Big Brother needs a good bitch slap.