Tech Politics: AppStore and MalWare, Steve Jobs and Gaddafi
The tech world is a lot like politics these days.
After a holiday season where much time was spent removing truly evil malware (I’m looking at you, bastards at Win 7 “Antispyware” 2012), I felt my net-politics shifting rightward. Gulp! Am I getting tech fascist sympathies?
In the human sphere, you understand that people living in unchecked violence and terror would turn to a strong dictator who promises security and order. This was the case made by Muammar Gaddafi when he warned that the country would descend into chaos without him. A good dictator promises order, control, safety.
App Stores promise the same thing. And let’s be honest; they do deliver. If my sister had an iPad, there’s no way I would have wasted a day running system scans and ultimately throwing up my hands and re-installing the system. Centralized control keeps the bad guys out, and a bad guy that snuck in can be instantly eliminated with the flip of a switch from App Store HQ.
I bet Gaddafi wished that his police could have been so efficient at removing threats.
And therein lies the rub. Who is to say what a threat is? Once the central authority has brought peace and safety by eliminating the original “bad guys,” its only a matter of course that they re-define bad guys to include threats to their central power. And extract as much tax as possible for access to their market.
This is the tech libertarian view, to which I would like to subscribe. But after some days in the trenches of average computer users, I am sympathetic to more centralized control — for the moment.
The question is: can the tech world find a balance between App store totalitarianism and malware-infested libertarian anarchy? What does tech democracy look like?
As per my old thesis project, I think trust needs to a tech overhaul. But for now, it’s interesting to watch the pendulum of tech swing rightward.
February 3, 2012: The illusion of feeling pressed for time
January 29, 2012: Tweeting for the machines
January 6, 2012: The internet is for gossip
January 5, 2012: Tech Politics: AppStore and MalWare, Steve Jobs and Gaddafi
October 17, 2011: Me as an Apple computer in 1981
January 7th, 2012 at 03:55
I’m ok with opt-in dictatorships like, say, Apple’s App Store.
I have more trouble with authoritarian regimes we don’t have much choice about, like the wireless carriers. Soon, possibly SOPA/PIPA as well.