Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/02/01/the-cyborg-bill-of-rights-v1-0.html
Our civil liberties, protections, and rights need to be revised periodically if they are to accompany us as we cross new frontiers. A new frontier looms ahead. More accurately, the new frontier looms within. And it is within our bodies and upon this battlefield that the next electronic rights war will be fought.
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Actually, it doesn’t loom. And some very bad things do loom.
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Don’t you worry there will be a bill of right for it. Just happy with quantum xmetics for now.
Freedom from Disassembly
Maybe they should have that one for Humans too?
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omg, this is going to be sack of cats.
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I’d be happy if I just had the right to not be shot by the cops for no reason.
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It’s a wonderful dream to imagine a world where people don’t loose their freedom through the use and adoption of technology. Some day our decedents may even make it real. But there’s a second impediment to cybernetic freedom and digital autonomy that this doesn’t solve. The general public must be taught the rudiments of controlling technological agency. I’m not saying everyone must be a programmer (although a basic understanding of how code functions, which can be taught in two weeks, would be a good idea), but they need to know how their technology behaves and interconnects so they can make effective decisions to remain in control of it. Anyone who can gain even partial proficiency with the insane complexities of the English language can learn these comparatively simple and logical workings. Schools will have to teach reading, writing, arithmetic and technical literacy if citizens are going to have any self-determination in our digital society.
But the flip side is that technology also has to be designed to obey the user. It’s one thing to be in conflict with your laptop or even your smartphone. It’s untenable to be in conflict with a world, let alone a body, permeated by intelligent devices. It would be like living in a society where everyone has to be in peak fighting condition and ready to wage a never ending war, with limited resources, against organizations with vast resources. That’s not civilization, that’s Mad Max with computers.
The only way we get a society where corporations produce devices that obey their users is if people demand it. Which means they must understand when it’s not obeying them and they must be willing to support watchdog groups and transparency regulation, and especially to give their money to competitors willing to make technology that obeys the user.
One look at the state of social media and the bottom lines of corporations that utterly abuse their users shows that that world is a long long way off. So while I fully support this Cyborg Bill of Rights, understand that appealing to fellow Mutants, Geeks and Nerds won’t solve the problem. To do that you have to reach the far wider user base who regard themselves as normal and smile tolerantly at a Cyborg Bill of Rights without realizing it’s talking about them.
Also, be aware of the likely interregnum we’re headed into, a totalitarian world where opaque corporations and governments control and manage the flow of information. China is only the very tip of that iceberg. It won’t be long before elites and their technologists get really good at it. We balk at the absurdity of a government that insists we live in a post-fact world, because they’re laughably bad at hiding the truth. But what if you, dear intelligent reader who takes some small solace in knowing better, could not in fact tell truth from lies? You fact check because you have some idea of where to look for verifiable information. You rely on free channels of information, channels that the people with the power to do so and the vested interest in managing what you know are gaining increasing control over.
TL;DR - Yes, fight for the users. But only when the users are willing and organized to fight for themselves will we have a chance at a free digital society.
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DIRECTIVE 4: (CLASSIFIED)
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Is this a joke?
Just looking quantum xmetics up with startpage gets me ads for Stadium Pyrotechnics, Duracell Quantum and then some HairLossTalk.com (Beagle Bros. foldout ads and qubit entanglement table inside! Not.) comment spam following the lede ‘Hair loss research is on fire right now.’ WiX, meet NoScript, NoScript, this is a lack of hosted relevance…
I can’t RDP::MX.vox! I can’t RDP::MX.vox? It was going to be relevant for ChGURPS respiration or something. Is there a GURPSv8.4 officer here?
Calling Clean Title claims Organic Naturalization and giving it this weird attack surface (embedded or infused or permanent) here needs a good jibe (beside Court Appointed Shoes To Permit Hanging Ten,) too.
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This is too important to use complex language. I am not sure how Naturalization and Sovereignty intersect.
But I think i might use the clause.
If it is in your body you own it. for example, physical objects, their associated software. and copyrights.
If external equipment or software is required for the operation of objects implanted in your body you own that as well.
To make this clear to regular people start with a story perhaps this one
Imagine an advert playing in your hearing aids. Imagine that you cannot afford to have it removed.
or perhaps
Imagine your tattooist asserting that you can not be photographed as you are part of his art work. Imagine even if you trust your tattooist that his creditors the assert their rights.
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