How do we make that work for us? We can devise means, through the application and sophistication of science, to remind governments that if they will not be responsible stewards of our rights, we the people will implement systems that provide for a means of not just enforcing our rights, but removing from governments the ability to interfere with those rights.
You can see the beginnings of this dynamic today in the statements of government officials complaining about the adoption of encryption by major technology providers. The idea here isn’t to fling ourselves into anarchy and do away with government, but to remind the government that there must always be a balance of power between the governing and the governed, and that as the progress of science increasingly empowers communities and individuals, there will be more and more areas of our lives where — if government insists on behaving poorly and with a callous disregard for the citizen — we can find ways to reduce or remove their powers on a new — and permanent — basis.\
Traitor and Patriot1 Edward Snowden, along with Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald hosted an AMA over on Reddit today. Interesting insights and I’m guardedly optimistic that we’re making progress on privacy and security matters. Both at the personal and national levels.
Footnotes
- Read the AMA. This is a bit of a joke in reference to this response.