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Title: War is Already Here Author: CrimethInc. Date: February 16, 2017 Language: en Topics: technology Source: Retrieved on 22nd April 2021 from https://crimethinc.com/2017/02/16/war-is-already-here-its-just-not-very-evenly-distributed
“The future is already here,” Cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson once
said; “it’s just not very evenly distributed.” Over the intervening
decades, many people have repurposed that quote to suit their needs.
Today, in that tradition, we might refine it thus: War is already
here—it’s just not very evenly distributed.
Never again will the battlefield be just state versus state; it hasn’t
been for some time. Nor are we seeing simple conflicts that pit a state
versus a unitary insurgent that aspires to statehood. Today’s wars
feature belligerents of all shapes and sizes: states (allied and
non-allied), religious zealots (with or without a state), local and
expatriate insurgents, loyalists to former or failing or neighboring
regimes, individuals with a political mission or personal agenda, and
agents of chaos who benefit from the instability of war itself. Anyone
or any group of any size can go to war.
The increased accessibility of the technology of disruption and war[1]
means the barrier to entry is getting lower all the time. The structure
of future wars will sometimes feel familiar, as men with guns murder
children and bombs level entire neighborhoods—but it will take new
forms, too. Combatants will manipulate markets and devalue currencies.
Websites will be subject to DDoS attacks and disabling—both by
adversaries and by ruling governments. Infrastructure and services like
hospitals, banks, transit systems, and HVAC systems will all be
vulnerable to attacks and interruptions.
In this chaotic world, in which new and increasing threats ceaselessly
menace our freedom, technology has become an essential battlefield. Here
at the CrimethInc. technology desk, we will intervene in the discourse
and distribution of technological know-how in hopes of enabling readers
like you to defend and expand your autonomy. Let’s take a glance at the
terrain.
The NSA listens to, reads, and records everything that happens on the
internet.
Amazon, Google, and Apple are always listening[2] and sending some
amount[3] of what they hear back to their corporate data centers[4].
Cops want that data. Uber, Lyft, Waze, Tesla, Apple, Google, and
Facebook know your whereabouts and your movements all of the time.
Employees spy on users.
Police[5] want access to the contents of your phone, computer, and
social media accounts—whether you’re a suspected criminal, a dissident
on a watch list, or an ex-wife.
The business model of most tech companies is surveillance capitalism.
Companies learn everything possible about you when you use their free
app or website, then sell your data to governments, police, and
advertisers. There’s even a company named Palantir, after the crystal
ball in The Lord of the Rings that the wizard Saruman used to gaze upon
Mordor—through which Mordor gazed into Saruman and corrupted him.[6]
Nietzsche’s famous quote, “When you look long into an abyss, the abyss
also looks into you,” now sounds like a double transcription error:
surely he didn’t mean abyss, but app.
Self-replicating malware spreads across Internet of Things (IoT) devices
like “smart” light bulbs and nanny cams, conscripting them into massive
botnets. The people who remotely control the malware then use these
light bulbs and security cameras to launch debilitating DDoS[7] attacks
against DNS providers, reporters, and entire countries.
Hackers use ransomware to hold colleges, hospitals, and transit systems
hostage. Everything leaks, from nude photos on celebrities’ phones to
the emails of US political parties.
Eight billionaires combined own as much wealth as the poorest 50% of the
world’s population. Four of those eight billionaires are tech company
founders.[8] Recently, the President of the United States gathered a
group of executives to increase collaboration between the tech industry
and the government.[9]
The tech industry in general, and the Silicon Valley in particular, has
a disproportionately large cultural influence. The tech industry is
fundamentally tied to liberalism and therefore to capitalism. Even the
most left-leaning technologists aren’t interested in addressing the
drawbacks of the social order that has concentrated so much power in
their hands.[10]
Nation states are already engaging in cyber warfare. Someone
somewhere[11] has been learning how to take down the internet.
Tech companies are best positioned to create a registry of Muslims and
other targeted groups. Even if George W. Bush and Barack Obama hadn’t
already created such lists and deported millions of people, if Donald
Trump (or any president) wanted to create a registry for roundups and
deportations, all he’d have to do is go to Facebook. Facebook knows
everything about you.
The Obama administration built the largest surveillance infrastructure
ever—Donald Trump’s administration just inherited it. Liberal
democracies and fascist autocracies share the same love affair with
surveillance. As liberalism collapses, the rise of autocracy coincides
with the greatest technical capacity for spying in history, with the
least cost or effort. It’s a perfect storm.
---
This brief overview doesn’t even mention artificial intelligence (AI),
machine learning, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), robots,
the venture capital system, or tech billionaires who think they can live
forever with transfusions of the blood of young people.
Here at the tech desk, we’ll examine technology and its effects from an
anarchist perspective. We’ll publish accessible guides and overviews on
topics like encryption, operational security, and how to strengthen your
defenses for everyday life and street battles. We’ll zoom out to explore
the relation between technology, the state, and capitalism—and a whole
lot more. Stay tuned.
[1] A surplus of AK-47s. Tanks left behind by U.S. military. Malware
infected networked computer transformed into DDoS botnets. Off the shelf
ready to execute scripts to attack servers.
[2] Amazon Echo / Alexa. Google with Google Home. Apple with Siri. Hey
Siri, start playing music.
[3] What, how much, stored for how long, and accessible by whom are all
unknown to the people using those services.
[4] Unless you are a very large company, “data center” means someone
else’s computer sitting in someone else’s building.
[5] Local beat cops and police chiefs, TSA, Border Patrol, FBI… all the
fuckers.
[6] Expect to read more about Palantir and others in a forthcoming
article about surveillance capitalism.
[7] Distributed Denial of Service. More on this in a later article, as
well.
[8] Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison. In fact, if
you count Michael Bloomberg as a technology company, that makes five.
[9] In attendance: Eric Trump. Brad Smith, Microsoft president and chief
legal officer. Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. Larry Page, Google
founder and Alphabet CEO. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO. Mike Pence.
Donald Trump. Peter Thiel, venture capitalist. Tim Cook, Apple CEO.
Safra Catz, Oracle CEO. Elon Musk, Tesla CEO. Gary Cohn, Goldman Sachs
president and Trump’s chief economic adviser. Wilbur Ross, Trump’s
commerce secretary pick. Stephen Miller, senior policy adviser. Satya
Nadella, Microsoft CEO. Ginni Rometty, IBM CEO. Chuck Robbins, Cisco
CEO. Jared Kushner, investor and Trump’s son-in-law. Reince Priebus,
chairman of the Republican National Committee and White House chief of
staff. Steve Bannon, chief strategist to Trump. Eric Schmidt, Alphabet
president. Alex Karp, Palantir CEO. Brian Krzanich, Intel CEO.
[10] We’ll explore this more in a later article about “The California
Ideology.”
[11] Probably a state-level actor such as Russia or China.