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generator: pandoc
title: Computer Education Today
viewport: 'width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes'
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2018-04-11T11:09:50Z
This is a tweet i just made: This 1981 BBC show "The Computer Program"
is amazing. We have nowhere near the level of non-neoliberal computer
literacy today. The fourth episode explicitly predicted the crimes of
facebook, google, apple and twitter. It actually said the words:
"We need to make sure we have clear rules for who is allowed to access
and manipulate what computers and information. We should be wary of
Big Brother on computers".
It also clearly explains how computers work, their various components
and parts. I received absolutely no computer education as a child, in
the 90s and 00s. I was given no reasoning for why computers were useful,
why they were important at all. I was given no education about the
significance of computers for our society, or for capitalism. I was of
course not given any education about the significance of computers for
/socialism/.
I would hack my school's computer systems, and I got into trouble, but I
was merely yelled at and scolded. I was not given any reason for my
punishment apart from "this is not your property"; "intellectual
property should be respected". No one has ever educated me on internet
security. Neither data security.
I have seen people line up for hours and spend thousands of dollars on
iPhones while having no knowledge of the crimes of the Apple
corporation, or the crimes of Microsoft, when they now /rent/ their word
processors. Where are the TV shows on mainstream TV telling us about how
Intel CPU speculative execution has rendered almost every desktop and
laptop computer is now almost impossible NOT to hack. Where are the
histories of the internet before web 2.0? Where are the mainstream
criticisms of HTTP? Why is everything connected to the internet all the
time? How can we get secure? Everyone is using the internet, but where
is the education for it?
Neoliberalism's pernicious ideology has taken over our understanding of
how and why to use computers. We don't have a good social and science of
computing anymore. We are not all walking businesses, as if when we open
our eyes we are for sale.