Daily Page: 2025-11-30
“You want to have your cake and eat it.”
— Janne Teller
So, it’s okay for you (capital investors) to take our property, in the name of innovation, but if we the people take your property … for the exact same reason …”
(6:40) I truly believe people who work in tech are no better or worse than any of the rest of us. The thing is, access to influence other people’s life is ENORMOUSLY BIGGER. The woman who sits and um takes your payment in the supermarket cannot harm your life very much if she doesn’t like you, but the one who sits in the tech company with access to your data, even if there are ethical codes for not accessing this or that person’s data, but somebody who has a grudge against you for whatever reason, your ex-wife, your ex-husband, (or ex’s side pieces) or who wants to stalk, they can find out anything about you, if they work in that tech company. And that’s the problem. Once you give human beings, with their good and bad characteristics, access to harm other human beings in an infinite manner it will be abused and we need somehow to put names on that access, even safeguard our the normality of our lives.
(Condescending, derisive, mocking) “Just to be clear, it’s not it’s not legal to for someone to peer into your personal data.”
There are so many things that are not legal, but if it’s possible and easily possible, it will be done, WHICH IS WHAT IS HAPPENING.
(10:08) “And just because he was caught, and some of your bosses haven’t been caught … YET … DOESN’T MAKE THEM INNOCENT.”
What to DO About It …
From Karl Marx to Elon Musk, many have claimed that in the right hands, technology is a liberating force for good. But there is increasing challenge to this notion, with figures from Obama to Tim Berners-Lee warning that Big Tech poses serious threats to autonomy and freedom. As a result, many now argue we need to escape from Big Tech and its addictive character. But it’s unknown if this is achievable. Critics argue Big Tech, through algorithms and data, manipulates our actions and choices in every aspect of our lives, so that human autonomy has already been radically undermined. Opting out is almost impossible. And Cambridge studies show anti-tech platforms, claiming to combat Big Tech addiction, often only replicate it in another form. Should we conclude that technology has undermined our freedom and we are no longer in control of our decisions and behaviour? Do we need to evolve digital rights to resist manipulation and provide self-governance, and will this work? Or might breaking up or banning Big Tech be part of the solution, allowing us to claim back autonomy?
Fink (noun/verb, informal, often derogatory):
- Noun: A contemptible or unpleasant person; especially someone who betrays others, or acts in a sneaky/disloyal way.
- Verb (less common, old slang): To back out or fail to keep a promise to someone.
Origin: Early 20th-century American English, likely from the German/Yiddish word “fink.” It became widespread in the U.S. in the 1920s – 1930s underworld and student slang to mean a sneaky betrayer.