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If millions of people know something, can it really be considered a secret anymore? That’s one of the questions at the heart of an ongoing debate in Washington about how much, and which, documents to classify in the age of Wikileaks, iPhones, and Edward Snowden.
That challenge, underscored by Mr. Snowden’s leaks of details exposing the National Security Agency’s top-secret surveillance programs, has given transparency experts new hope that they can help intelligence agencies take advantage of new thinking around classification to ensure that what needs to be secret stays secret.
“The calculation has changed recently, because a single individual, either out of negligence or malice or some other motive, can disclose whole libraries of records,” says Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy. “That’s something the government has not yet figured out how to deter or prevent.”
(Score: 2) by idiot_king on Saturday May 27 2017, @02:52AM (1 child)
1. Throughout history, governments can be construed as a type of counterweight to the power of small groups (and, in a sense, "individuals," though not strictly speaking): the more stable the society, the less strict the government control, and vice-versa (this is a moot point but bears reminder nonetheless).
2. The American Republic, along with every other government on Earth, has undergone the most dramatic technical advancements and changes in the past 2 centuries which has tipped the scales, arguably, in the favor of near-mob rule with the current trend of social media. Immediately the Athenian Democracy comes to mind, with its slow decline from centralized power to actual Democracy (for land-owning men) collapsing into a singularity of despotism and tyranny. The Roman Republic suffers the same fate. (Eastern governments for the most part are unexamined here for their propensity to be, up until the 1800s essentially, run by single rulers of any sort including Emperors, Shoguns, Caliphs, Sultans, and so on).
3. The tidal wave of information produced by the Information Age offers a peculiar problem unforeseen and unpredictable by any of our predecessors: Drowning in seas of "knowledge." Virtually anyone now has access to limitless amounts of information. Sources like Wikileaks thus ride said tidal wave as a counterbalance to "restore" power to the "individual" (whatever that means) and can be seen as an aggressor group to the current holders of power (obviously).
4. A) The propensity for humans to use newly discovered technology for domination of others instead of collaboration with others is particularly high. Nuclear energy was explicitly sought after in competition with other global powers at the time, not used for plentiful energy to free us from fossil fuels. Iron smithing was first used for ceremonial items followed by spears and swords, not first used for developing a sturdier plow or wheel. (One imagines what the first use of fire must have been)
B) The appropriate response of the US Government, according to history, would be to flood the "information ecosystem" with nothing but rubbish to completely distort public opinion and break down social trust and immobilize the public psyche; if they pursued this to its ends, they would then provide a glimmering beacon of solid ground (via propaganda) which provides an escape from the endless torrent of "non-truths." This has already been demonstrated with the "Panama Papers" and, mind you, the endless torrent of stories calling into question the validity of Wikileaks and other sources. The media attacking Donald Trump every time he gets out of bed may be the second item mentioned here, the "glimmering beacon," i.e., the truth is to question the President's every move.
This is just pure conjecture and I am probably connecting dots that do not actually exist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 27 2017, @06:01AM
Of course, ironsmithing was used to create all sorts of tools besides implements of war or religion.
Of course, nuclear power was sought not just for weaponry, but also for energy; that's why the world's nuclear plants are so ancient and decrepit—they were one of the first things built.
Forget Fake News; you suffer from Fake History.