Learn, hack!

URL

http://mirror.fem-net.de/CCC/27C3/mp3-audio-only/27c3-4098-en-tor_is_peace_software_freedom_is_slavery.mp3

File name

27c3-4098-en-tor_is_peace_software_freedom_is_slavery.mp3

File size

29.3 MB

MD5

53c4850bebbcad2cff3c2134994c73d0

SHA1

1bc372406fe5ac9a9a160af15fe59cb863fa59f9

The Internet began as state-sponsored anarchy, but it is now the tool of first resort for dissidents and propagandists alike. The poster-child project of the Free Software Movement runs on the authority of a single person; the rest clash over the very definition of the word 'free'. A company which pictured itself as smashing Big Brother is now seen as one of the perceived secretive and authoritarian in the industry; and for another, 'Don't Be Evil' is proving to be a challenging motto to live by. This talk aims to present a view of the societies of Internet from the perspective of political philosophy. Political philosophy is not politics, in the same way that computer science is not programming. It's not the politics about the Internet, but the politics *of* the Internet. Even so, events at any particular place or time just provide examples to be studied. Political philosophy is meta-politics, it's about the trends in politics and the theories we use to understand them. Real-world political systems have striking parallels in the evolution of the Internet: there was primitive anarchy before Eternal September, the era of walled gardens resembled that of Ancient Greek city-states, which were succeeded by more-or-less liberal regimes following the geographical territories of real-world governments. Because of its rapid evolution, mass participation, and highly complex human interaction, the Internet should be subjected to the sorts of questions that political philosophers ask. On the Internet, what is freedom? Do we have obligations to those in control? To each other? What rights do we have? What can we own? Once we know the way it is, we can ask how it should be...