Bacchus
Sunni: Do you think we'll have to get to that state, where "naughty men" can't slip about, before things will improve, freedom-wise?
Bacchus: I've actually got a great deal of hope and confidence that there never will "come the day when naughty men like us can't slip about at all". People are impressively naughty, and if you're willing to keep a low enough profile, there's plenty of slipping room in even the most repressive world. It's noisy folk like you and me who can't keep our mouths shut, we're the ones who need to worry. That said, I think things will improve even for the noisiest of us, and I don't think they'll get too much worse before they start getting better. All the models of government repression that we've seen so far are old-fashioned, industrial-age models, full of top-heavy, centralized, bureaucratic organizations that can't exchange data or talk to each other freely. Right now those institutions are busy building a total surveillance state that collects unimaginable quantities of data about our daily lives, but they haven't shown they have the skill or ability to process that data in any useful way. If the best they can manage is stuff like the laughable no fly list full of badly spelled names of the wrong people, we don't really have much to fear. This is especially true if their data processing technology continues to be based on barely-functional, impossible-to-maintain proprietary "systems" sold by corrupt and venal government contractors. Alert individuals and motivated self-organizing groups using cutting edge communications systems and open source software will always be a dozen steps ahead of these lumbering dinosaurs of repression. Or, at least, that's what I think when I'm feeling optimistic.
Sunni: So it doesn't put a damper on your day to read about stuff like the ADVISE program in progress that I blogged about the other day? For me, I hate to see it in one sense, even though I know that each tightening of the fist means more individuals slipping through the state's grip. But that's a different movie allusion [laughs].
Bacchus: No, actually I read that and laughed my ass off. That story was short on details but long on grandiose statements about data mining goals. There really wasn't anything in the story to suggest that they will actually be able to make the data mining work. For it to work, it has to pull out correlations useful to the state, while generating false positives at a low enough level to avoid poisoning the results. We've never seen any evidence that the government can implement really large scale data processing projects of such complexity in any sort of consistent way. On the contrary, most of the projects we know about -- specifically including the efforts over the last decade to rationalize computing resources in the IRS and the FBI -- have been spectacular failures. Large scale data processing projects are impressively hard. Corporations routinely screw these up to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, and the government track record is even worse, because the government decision loop is so much slower than corporate ones, and because the government can't attract and keep good people. And when government agencies try to outsource, they get ass-raped repeatedly by venal contractors they don't have the expertise to oversee effectively. It's really quite entertaining.
Sunni: You sound like you know more about these systems than I do, but I still am concerned about the willingness of corporations to turn over the information they collect to government agencies. But let's turn back to more pleasant topics. I don't want to put you on the spot personally, but part of the idea behind interviewing you this month was for Valentine's Day -- to help celebrate love and intimacy of all sorts. Do you have any recommendations -- web sites, blogs, or books -- for individuals looking to improve a relationship, or to get more spice in his or her sex life?
Bacchus: It's hard to be very specific, when everybody's situation is unique. The spice is easiest; Violet Blue has a Valentine's gift guide that should get anyone started. I'm also quite happy to recommend Blowfish for sex toys, and The Stockroom for BDSM stuff, as some of the best web merchants out there. Those are honest personal recommendations; I don't have advertising relationships with these folks and never have. Although their marketing departments are encouraged to call me and fix that little oversight of theirs at any time.
When it comes to improving relationships, I'm more at a loss. One thing I'd like, though, is if we had Valentine's Day Resolutions the way we have New Year's Resolutions. Too many folk who need relationship improvement suffer in quiet misery or boredom, year in and year out, but they don't do anything about it. If you aren't happy, make a change! Try something! If that doesn't work, try something else! But realize that it takes two to tango. If your partner flatly refuses to tango, and you've tried every responsible method of persuasion, don't wallow in freakish misery for the rest of your life. Figure out what it will take to responsibly extricate yourself from the relationship, and then do so as soon as you reasonably can. Yes, in some cases where children are involved, this may be a project of many years. But life is long. Do it. You have time.
