9 good things about '10: #2 - WikiLeaks
It’s always amazed me how much we take the internet for granted. When I first sampled this new technology back in 1995, I was gobsmacked at what was possible, but it seemed that everybody else went overnight from saying “it’s just a nerd toy” to “My dialup is so slow. The internet sucks”. I feel the same way about mobile phones, which are as close to a form of global telepathy as we’ll ever achieve.
I got my first smartphone this year, a shuddering, coal-powered Nokia E63. It was the first phone of mine that had serious web integration and I’ve since upgraded to the HTC Desire HD, which is a higher spec than my laptop. Using these devices has made the internet feel even more real to me than before. It now seems like a entire other world in itself, like William Gibson’s vision of Cyberspace finally come to fruition. Smartphones are portable windows into that world, meaning we can jump between the two at any instant. This goes beyond Gibson’s vision; it’s more like Philip Pullman’s subtle knife.
So let me be evangelical about this revolution for a second: the internet is not merely a delivery system for email, porn and LOLcats. It is a cultural force that will drive the step in our evolutionary development. Once the internet and mobile communications has seeped in everywhere (and it really is doing this, with 5 billion mobile phone users in the world), we will stop being Homo Sapeins and become an entirely different animal. Homo Scientia maybe, or Homo Turbatio. Or iHomo (That last one might need some work)
The change is already happening. We’ve been able to ignore it to date because the internet mainly consists of email, porn & LOLcats. A few skirmishes have occurred between the governments of the old world and the anarchic collectives of the new one. Most notable is the battle on piracy: a global attempt to enforce copyright has failed more miserably than any policing effort in history, to the point where the only way to stop piracy is now to abandon all previous notions of copyright ownership and replace them with something new.
That was just a tremor. WikiLeaks is the first big earthquake.
Yes, WikiLeaks is just one of many whistleblowing sites out there and yes, Julian Assange is actually a bit of a tool (we’ll let the courts decide if he’s a rapist, but he’s definitely a tool with a messiah complex). But in 2010 WikiLeaks have been at the vanguard of a movement which is very quietly sweeping the world. It’s a movement that declares absolute openness for everyone. Facebook are doing it to individuals; WikiLeaks are doing it to unwilling governments.
The highlight of the WL year for me was not the Cablegate affair, but the Collateral Murder video leaked earlier in the year. The video is filmed from a US helicopter and shows them shooting a group of Iraqi civilians plus two Reuters journalists. It’s gruelling to watch, as snuff movies should be, but it’s unfiltered reality delivered in real-time. That’s new. That’s important.
The leaked cables themselves have now been overshadowed by the Assange arrest, but that shouldn’t detract from their importance. They are the great Naked Lunch moment of our time. Suddenly, everyone has realised exactly what’s n the end of their fork. It’s been shocking and unpleasant, and entirely unprecedented. The phony war that followed afterward was depressing: Assange’s arrest made the justice system of the physical world look bogus and corrupt; the nuisance DDoS attacks by Anonymous showed that the online world is still weak, flimsy and crippled by anarchy.
WikiLeaks has revealed as much about the world simply by existing as it has by leaking classified material. It’s been extraordinary to watch. And it begs the question: what happens next?
It would be nice to say that we’ll enter into an age of unrestricted freedom and transparency. Maybe we will, even though history suggests otherwise. Without a doubt, governments will start to view internet freedom as a threat and try and try to create a harmless, ring-fenced internet, like AOL in the mid-90s. I don’t think this will happen either because governments have shown themselves to be woefully incompetent at dealing with any challenge presented by technology (hence the continued existence of web piracy)
Most likely is this will be a real evolution. Our behaviours and characteristics will change on a personal and social level in unpredictable ways and the ones that fit best will survive. Some things will be better, some will be worse. Evolution isn’t about progress, it’s about unstoppable change.
(The Collateral Murder video: http://www.collateralmurder.com/ It really is very grim)
I got my first smartphone this year, a shuddering, coal-powered Nokia E63. It was the first phone of mine that had serious web integration and I’ve since upgraded to the HTC Desire HD, which is a higher spec than my laptop. Using these devices has made the internet feel even more real to me than before. It now seems like a entire other world in itself, like William Gibson’s vision of Cyberspace finally come to fruition. Smartphones are portable windows into that world, meaning we can jump between the two at any instant. This goes beyond Gibson’s vision; it’s more like Philip Pullman’s subtle knife.
So let me be evangelical about this revolution for a second: the internet is not merely a delivery system for email, porn and LOLcats. It is a cultural force that will drive the step in our evolutionary development. Once the internet and mobile communications has seeped in everywhere (and it really is doing this, with 5 billion mobile phone users in the world), we will stop being Homo Sapeins and become an entirely different animal. Homo Scientia maybe, or Homo Turbatio. Or iHomo (That last one might need some work)
The change is already happening. We’ve been able to ignore it to date because the internet mainly consists of email, porn & LOLcats. A few skirmishes have occurred between the governments of the old world and the anarchic collectives of the new one. Most notable is the battle on piracy: a global attempt to enforce copyright has failed more miserably than any policing effort in history, to the point where the only way to stop piracy is now to abandon all previous notions of copyright ownership and replace them with something new.
That was just a tremor. WikiLeaks is the first big earthquake.
Yes, WikiLeaks is just one of many whistleblowing sites out there and yes, Julian Assange is actually a bit of a tool (we’ll let the courts decide if he’s a rapist, but he’s definitely a tool with a messiah complex). But in 2010 WikiLeaks have been at the vanguard of a movement which is very quietly sweeping the world. It’s a movement that declares absolute openness for everyone. Facebook are doing it to individuals; WikiLeaks are doing it to unwilling governments.
The highlight of the WL year for me was not the Cablegate affair, but the Collateral Murder video leaked earlier in the year. The video is filmed from a US helicopter and shows them shooting a group of Iraqi civilians plus two Reuters journalists. It’s gruelling to watch, as snuff movies should be, but it’s unfiltered reality delivered in real-time. That’s new. That’s important.
The leaked cables themselves have now been overshadowed by the Assange arrest, but that shouldn’t detract from their importance. They are the great Naked Lunch moment of our time. Suddenly, everyone has realised exactly what’s n the end of their fork. It’s been shocking and unpleasant, and entirely unprecedented. The phony war that followed afterward was depressing: Assange’s arrest made the justice system of the physical world look bogus and corrupt; the nuisance DDoS attacks by Anonymous showed that the online world is still weak, flimsy and crippled by anarchy.
WikiLeaks has revealed as much about the world simply by existing as it has by leaking classified material. It’s been extraordinary to watch. And it begs the question: what happens next?
It would be nice to say that we’ll enter into an age of unrestricted freedom and transparency. Maybe we will, even though history suggests otherwise. Without a doubt, governments will start to view internet freedom as a threat and try and try to create a harmless, ring-fenced internet, like AOL in the mid-90s. I don’t think this will happen either because governments have shown themselves to be woefully incompetent at dealing with any challenge presented by technology (hence the continued existence of web piracy)
Most likely is this will be a real evolution. Our behaviours and characteristics will change on a personal and social level in unpredictable ways and the ones that fit best will survive. Some things will be better, some will be worse. Evolution isn’t about progress, it’s about unstoppable change.
(The Collateral Murder video: http://www.collateralmurder.com/ It really is very grim)