The Incident
Nov. 14th, 2020 04:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
minikin25When we try to reconstruct what happened, it is clear that all the ingredients were cooking for years (decades) leading up to The Incident.
The usual historical sources were no good; this was after the Murrow Era of sovereign airwaves and strict ethical standards. It was before the Era of Truth. Some say the wild wags of the web were to blame for it all.
Like particle physicists of old, we can only track The Incident by the rippling effects of its passage.
We know that before The Incident, there was a divided nation — a divided globe. The binary biases of the past still lingered as a persistent belief that there were two answers to any question, two sides to any puzzle. Two outcomes to any battle. A belief in winners or losers, in freedom or safety, in right or wrong.
Looking back from our current time of enlightenment, we are appalled at the importance that was put to numbers over actions or outcomes. Numbers are so easy a source of argument that has nothing to do with solutions. The Incident was overlooked during the global attention to a shared problem that could have been handled jointly rather than separately. Individual action was demonized or ignored or celebrated. Group action brought about the end of what was, after all, a simple problem.
While the world was reeling from natural and man-made obstacles and disasters, the instigators began to establish their network.
No one has been able to list those responsible. There have been many who stepped forward to take credit; many others dragged forward to blame.
We know now that none of the tech giants were involved, neither corporately nor individually. We are certain that The Incident was the work of coders who were sick of the ranting. Coders who knew that the "powers that be" had no real power to make the world a better place.
The world financial network was the first target of the coders. There was no outage; the takeover was seamless. Once they had control of the flow of capital, they just started tweaking. The network of coders was so large that they had the computing power to run full simulations, and update them with new information in real time. They knew the goal. They knew what they could control and how to distribute that control.
But the true strength of the invisible hands lay in their new ethic, one born out of open source, consensus programming, universal realtime communications, and an awareness of the consequences of failure.
We can only guess at how long this network was in the making. We can only guess at how they found the fulcrums for their leverage. Our records show only the meaningless news reports and political speeches. We have images of poverty and heartbreak, of war, of lassitude.
"We'll have to pass it to see what's in it." The statement that was ridiculed became a method. Laws are implemented by regulations and communiques. The coders tweaked the implementations, rather than worrying about the labels. And slowly, actions just started making sense.
Could any of this have taken place without the disruptions that camouflaged it? We'll never know.
If the old is smashed and the new is a wonder, need we do anything more than give thanks? Anything more than grab the joy in front of us?
This is meant to be a thought piece in a far future science publication. Published in a time when the earth and its peoples are sane and healthy, when life is an exercise in purpose and joy. Perhaps at some hundreds year anniversary celebration. This is not meant to declare how it came about, so much as to decry our current assumptions about what our current systems of government and global economics can do. We need change. Who brings it is not so important as that we envision a future that provides life and purpose and joy.
The usual historical sources were no good; this was after the Murrow Era of sovereign airwaves and strict ethical standards. It was before the Era of Truth. Some say the wild wags of the web were to blame for it all.
Like particle physicists of old, we can only track The Incident by the rippling effects of its passage.
We know that before The Incident, there was a divided nation — a divided globe. The binary biases of the past still lingered as a persistent belief that there were two answers to any question, two sides to any puzzle. Two outcomes to any battle. A belief in winners or losers, in freedom or safety, in right or wrong.
Looking back from our current time of enlightenment, we are appalled at the importance that was put to numbers over actions or outcomes. Numbers are so easy a source of argument that has nothing to do with solutions. The Incident was overlooked during the global attention to a shared problem that could have been handled jointly rather than separately. Individual action was demonized or ignored or celebrated. Group action brought about the end of what was, after all, a simple problem.
While the world was reeling from natural and man-made obstacles and disasters, the instigators began to establish their network.
No one has been able to list those responsible. There have been many who stepped forward to take credit; many others dragged forward to blame.
We know now that none of the tech giants were involved, neither corporately nor individually. We are certain that The Incident was the work of coders who were sick of the ranting. Coders who knew that the "powers that be" had no real power to make the world a better place.
The world financial network was the first target of the coders. There was no outage; the takeover was seamless. Once they had control of the flow of capital, they just started tweaking. The network of coders was so large that they had the computing power to run full simulations, and update them with new information in real time. They knew the goal. They knew what they could control and how to distribute that control.
But the true strength of the invisible hands lay in their new ethic, one born out of open source, consensus programming, universal realtime communications, and an awareness of the consequences of failure.
We can only guess at how long this network was in the making. We can only guess at how they found the fulcrums for their leverage. Our records show only the meaningless news reports and political speeches. We have images of poverty and heartbreak, of war, of lassitude.
"We'll have to pass it to see what's in it." The statement that was ridiculed became a method. Laws are implemented by regulations and communiques. The coders tweaked the implementations, rather than worrying about the labels. And slowly, actions just started making sense.
Could any of this have taken place without the disruptions that camouflaged it? We'll never know.
If the old is smashed and the new is a wonder, need we do anything more than give thanks? Anything more than grab the joy in front of us?
This is meant to be a thought piece in a far future science publication. Published in a time when the earth and its peoples are sane and healthy, when life is an exercise in purpose and joy. Perhaps at some hundreds year anniversary celebration. This is not meant to declare how it came about, so much as to decry our current assumptions about what our current systems of government and global economics can do. We need change. Who brings it is not so important as that we envision a future that provides life and purpose and joy.
no subject
Date: 2020-11-14 10:14 pm (UTC)This is very good. I'm glad I got to read it earlier, and I think you have written an excellent piece here. :)
no subject
Date: 2020-11-14 11:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-14 11:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-14 11:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-16 11:50 am (UTC)Way to go!
no subject
Date: 2020-11-16 02:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-17 09:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-17 09:39 pm (UTC)It's definitely very timely!
no subject
Date: 2020-11-17 10:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-17 10:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-18 10:17 am (UTC)