My cybersecurity class dubbed it a "Bill of Bytes".
The things you mention off the top of your head are just some of
possibly 50 or 60 pressing issues relating to "consumer rights", trade
and manufacture, intellectual property, information rights and
privacy, digital sustainability, security and resilience.
The time has come to collect them all into a coherent analysis and set
out limits, principles and safeguards.
Those most interested/invested in this will not be random Joe in the
street (about whom most readers here will proclaim: "they don't care
and therefore deserve no protection") - but developers. Us. Because
without some guidance to protect our industry from ourselves it will
spiral down over the next decade until "technology" becomes the second
common rallying point, after environment, against which people
organise.
Like climate, I think we are at a potential turning point, with a
window of opportunity, to decide whether digital technology will be
part of the solution, or another part of the problem.
I am glad you're interested ssivark. These vibrant discussions we once
had in classes for ethical hacking and security engineering, had a big
influence on a book I wrote called Digital Vegan. They continue to
inspire me with a new book "Ethics for Hackers". However, the world is
changing so rapidly. Much of Digital Vegan feels quaint already (or
perhaps I have matured).
But, in all sincerity, do you really think that the readers of HN
would positively discuss a "Bill of Bytes"? So far I have found the
pervading cynicism and stuckness to be discouraging. It's very
different when you are in a room, face-to-face with people who are
themselves exasperated with digital technology and open to creative
thinking about how to fix it. But on the internet, everyone is their
own urbane expert, "too cool to care". Or, increasingly, they're an AI
troll-bot cleverly designed to derail any reflective exchanges.
Working on a personal level is more where I'm at. Every year another
of my classes pass out into the world, get jobs in cybersecurity or
development. I hope they take the deeper lessons with them, and try to
make the world a better place for everyone who uses technology.
Meanwhile writers like Cory Doctorow are doing a great job of bringing
issues to non-technical readers
> But, in all sincerity, do you really think that the readers of HN would positively discuss a "Bill of Bytes"?
I think there will definitely be an interesting discussion. But that's only the tip of the iceberg, and the more important discussion is to be had with a larger cross-section of society -- like in those classes and books.
I believe it is important for us (technologists, power users, etc) to do the ground work and prepare a forward-looking framework for when the time is ripe (just like remote work/interaction technology languished for years before Covid suddenly drove up adoption).
It is a topic I care about deeply (and have been toying with the idea of a curriculum to "compute better"). I would love to engage further on this (offline) if you're interested.
Thanks for the pointers; I'll definitely look up the books :-)
The things you mention off the top of your head are just some of possibly 50 or 60 pressing issues relating to "consumer rights", trade and manufacture, intellectual property, information rights and privacy, digital sustainability, security and resilience.
The time has come to collect them all into a coherent analysis and set out limits, principles and safeguards.
Those most interested/invested in this will not be random Joe in the street (about whom most readers here will proclaim: "they don't care and therefore deserve no protection") - but developers. Us. Because without some guidance to protect our industry from ourselves it will spiral down over the next decade until "technology" becomes the second common rallying point, after environment, against which people organise.
Like climate, I think we are at a potential turning point, with a window of opportunity, to decide whether digital technology will be part of the solution, or another part of the problem.