Quote:
MS, Apple and Google rule the whole world.
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Y'know, I might be revealing my
age here ...
... but I clearly remember every single one of these companies as they were
being born ...
Therefore, I
also clearly remember a time when not a single one of these companies yet
existed. (And, believe it or not, "we did just fine, thankye ...")
So: you
never have any excuse to let go of your life-preserver and to "simply conclude" that you were pre-ordained to drown.
When the Internet came to town, lots of people were trying to decide what it actually
meant. Some people thought of "a universal library." Others thought of "every video you ever saw on MTV" ...
uhh ... back in the day when they actually showed videos and "CNN" aired a 30-minute newscast every 30 minutes ...
The notion that "it means that you can
eavesdrop(!) on everything that anyone on Planet Earth is doing or saying" ... is ... more recent.
... and the notion that "you can put facial recognition cameras along every mile of
Interstate Toll-Road I-75" ... is ... even more recent.
... and the notion that you can,
with impunity, fly a "drone" over your neighbor's backyard where here sixteen-year old daughter
(yuck, yuck, yuck ...) is "having a very-thorough
suntan in the
p-r-i-v-a-c-y(!) of her own backyard" ... is ...
Anyhow:
"all(!) of these things, actually, very-much remain to be
sorted out."
Strange as it may seem, "the arrival of
(very!!) 'new things'" ... is not at all ... "new."
---
The mantra,
"may you live in interesting times," is
extremely(!) true for the present generation. You should therefore always bear in mind that
"the law has not quite yet caught up with you ... b-u-t it will."
Generations ago, "the telephone" was The Internet of its day. (And, even before that, "the telegraph.") Yea, even before
that, "snail-mail service" was not a thing to be relied upon. As each leapfrog of technology has advanced the ability of human beings "here" to communicate with other human beings "there," the
law always took a little time to catch up.
"But, it always
did," and
every time it did, it always erred on the side of
privacy.
Even before "the party line"
(a technical necessity of its era ...) was completely eliminated, "wiretapping" laws had been introduced. Even though "the scissored letter" was for a brief time a reality of World War, letters were routinely mailed in
envelopes that the postman was forbidden to open. And, so on.
Therefore: we
should not(!) expect the present state of affairs to become "the new normal."
... and, especially(!) ... we absolutely should not "bank our
future business plans," much less our
careers(!!!) upon any such cockamamie idea.
...
never mind that so many (young
) people already
have, and ...
...
never mind the 'pundits' who are screeching to us about this "new normal."