[p2p-research] Drone hacking

[Ryan Lanham]

On Thu, Dec 24, 2009 at 4:47 PM, Andy Robinson <ldxar1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> You cannot escape so easily.  You don't get out of the problem of how
> states historically have behaved by hiding in technological arguments.
>
>
I work to make states better.  I am no apologist for them.  I try to work
with reality and try to relax current real rules when trying to see various
futures.  I know of no other way forward. If there are others that are
realistic, I'm certainly open to them.

I don't intend to hide in technology arguments.  I don't hide behind much.
I try to be forthright and clear.

I like to think I participate here so as to learn for my own improvement.  I
have no ego invested, no stake, no reputation I seek to gird or extend.  The
beauty of these sorts of venues is that they draw smart people who don't
have to play the little social games of the academy.  They dysfunctions and
coteries of institutional power and rhetoric are mercifully minimal here.  I
don't earn my living from anything even remotely close to what is discussed
here.  I do care about people and futures and I try to find pragmatic ways
forward.  Like many, I find my mind vexed by difficult times from which I
have found little comfort in religious texts, economic texts or political
ones.

My ideas are simply my ideas.  I am not trying to convince you nor anyone
else.  In context, I write on occasion, provocatively.  Ideas need a certain
raw edge to merit any focus.  But I try to feel legitimately about what I
write.  I am not usually ignorant; naivety is a subjective assessment.  I
tend to think being a touch naive opens up some fresh possibilities.

You may be right that governments are inherently evil and technology will be
our undoing as a repressive instrument of the Man.  Thinking that way makes
me rather low.

I work with excellent people in government who serve out of deep commitment
to others.  Perfect?  No.  Inherently flawed?  Maybe.  But they get their
hands dirty in Walzer's sense.  That may merit dismissal and cynicism as a
class action.  But I'm not buying it.  I know the truth is different...at
least the truth I experience.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/attachments/20091225/9b2a2d6a/attachment.html>