'Autonomous Machines': World Reawakens to U.S. Internet
Dominance (Mediapart, France)
"These programs are becoming autonomous and activate one
another. Initially, they may suggest that human operators research, and
eventually destroy, a particular individual or company whose existence may be
judged hostile to American interests. Very soon, they will themselves, without
a clear mandate, take the decision to destroy or incapacitate. This scenario
exists, not only in the so-called battle against terrorism, but in all
competitive fields where America takes on the world."
People in Hong Kong have no trouble protesting China's rights violations, and in the case of Edward Snowden, they have no trouble protesting rights violations they believe have been committed by the United States.
The Anglo-American press has been commenting
extensively in recent days on the extent of federal government surveillance of
the global Internet through its intelligence agencies (primarily the NSA and
CIA). Following successive revelations by The
Guardian, the American media, even those considered mainstream and closest
to power, expressed their astonishment.
The European media, especially the French, are
much more circumspect. On June 10, neither the printed press or television gave
much coverage to the revelations of heroic Edward Snowden. The topic of the day
was the accidental death of two old men who took improperly labeled drugs.
It was only in its online edition of June 11
that Le Monde began to publish a
substantial number of comments. Even then, it hardly got, we think, to the root
of the problem, summed up so well by the words of Edward Snowden in The Guardian:"I don't
want to live in a society that does these sort of things … I do not want to
live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not
something I am willing to support or live under," he told the daily.
"The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows
it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of
human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted
to see your emails or your wife's phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I
can get your emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards. ... My sole motive
is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which
is done against them," he added.
For our part, from 2001, and more
systematically since then, (see links below), we have been bringing to the
attention of our readers the world of surveillance and the general controls
that were being established. The Chinese, Russians and other states may be
doing the same, but they lack the hundreds of billions of dollars used by the
"home of democracy," the United States, to carry out Barack Obama's
cyber war.
Moreover, although we may be read by tens of
thousands of people who are keenly aware of technological developments, these
articles caused no reaction of any kind. The likelihood is that we communicated
poorly. But perhaps, as well, there is an ignorance or refusal to see reality
in France that is stronger than we may have imagined.
Two key
issues
Two types of questions arise. The first are
geostrategic, and largely transcend us (except in terms of political science). However
they should interest first and foremost the French government and European
Parliament. This is the fact that the U.S. politico-industrial,
techno-scientific and media system has, over the last fifteen years, put in
place a power-seizing structure that behaves like an impenetrable fortress.
This system rests on two pillars. The first is
storage, which has become global, notably at the NSA's Utah data center, of all
personal and financial information transmitted on digital networks by billions
of Internet users and so-called intelligent portable devices. The information
is either pirated or provided voluntarily by all users of Facebook, Skype,
Google, etc.
The second pillar of American power, the extent
of which is only now fully revealed, rests on the fact that databases stored in
this way are then read and analyzed, not by human operators who would be
incapable of doing so, but by software programs developed as a result of
billion-dollar contracts to high-tech companies specializing in research and
control.
Posted
By Worldmeets.US
These programs are becoming autonomous and
activate one another. Initially, they may suggest that human operators
research, and eventually destroy, a particular individual or company whose existence
may be judged hostile to American interests. Very soon, they will themselves,
without a clear mandate, take the decision to destroy or incapacitate. This
scenario exists, not only in the so-called battle against terrorism, but in all
competitive fields where America takes on the world.
The old fear of science fiction writers, that
robots would become rulers of the world, is becoming a reality. Differences in
capability, however, are obvious. In the coming years, these automated robots
will serve the global interests - sometimes scientific, at other times
economic, geostrategic, or legal, and still others criminal - of the American
"system." The presence of whistleblowers like Julian Assange, Bradley
Manning and Edward Snowdon, whatever the risks taken, will undoubtedly change
little.
Let's not be naive. European governments and
their agencies also rely on these methods and data, but their means are
disproportionate. Europe, and likewise France, are in a situation of dependency
on the United States, which leaves them little autonomy or initiative in
diplomatic or economic situations where they compete.
The disparity is almost unassailable. Might we
consider investing at least 500
billion to allow businesses to be truly independent of the United States to
begin to have their own capabilities? A modern-day de Gaulle would undoubtedly
try, as he did for the Force de Frappe.
But men of his caliber are no more. We will have to resign ourselves to
remaining water carriers for our friends across the Atlantic.
Below are some of our previous articles on this
subject:
* Nouvelles technologies
numériques et combat pour la démocratie
