You take your security seriously, so you get the best IP security cameras you can find:
Imagine buying an internet-enabled surveillance camera, network attached storage device, or home automation gizmo, only to find that it secretly and constantly phones home to a vast peer-to-peer (P2P) network run by the Chinese manufacturer of the hardware. Now imagine that the geek gear you bought doesn’t actually let you block this P2P communication without some serious networking expertise or hardware surgery that few users would attempt.
Home automation sounds great. Everything wired into the internet, updates to your cell phone, open your garage door from work to let the dog out, turn up the thermostat before you get home, brew your coffee remotely so it is ready when you get there, turn off the power to your range on your way to the airport, start your car remotely and turn up the AC on a hot day so it is cool when you get there, activate your security remotely, check out your security cameras while on the go, and so on. The problem is, even if all of that was helpful, all that software is an enormous security hole you are installing in your network, opening up everything from your cell phone, to your home security system, to your computer to tampering.
Even crazier, there is no guarantee today that the big name product you buy online isn’t a Chinese knockoff, made to look just like the real thing, but loaded with malware designed to get inside.
I suspect with time we will see a return of the luddites. But this time, they will be the technologically savvy people who realize the dangers all of this presents.
Resistance to the apocalypse is futile – it is all automated.
[…] By Anonymous Conservative […]
Very true. Or somebody could take control of your car and run it into an embankment…
My car will still run after an EMP event, it’s a 1987 Mercedes diesel. Modern cars are too full of computers.
We are going to see a lot more about computer security.
There’s also the problem that, with the partial exception of Apple, hardware manufacturers have zero incentive to support their products after the sale. If a security flaw is discovered in Android 4.0, the only way to fix it is to throw away all your old Android devices and buy new ones. You can’t just download and install Android 4.2 because it must be customized to fit your specific hardware.
Humans vs robot soldiers will result in quite the carnage. Can you call this a more intense form of K-selection?
Robots are tireless,faster and more efficient than humans after all.
I tend to think the robots will be controlled by the rabbits. They can sit in an air-conditioned control center, while the robots can automate the last few seconds of the decision to kill. The controllers will be able to input a photo ID and a patrol zone, and then step off to lunch while the actual deed happens.
That means that robotic warfare ironically turns warfare into r-selective pressure instead of the historical K-selection.
But the humans that had to face the robots themselves along with resource scarcity will force K-selection unlike any other.
“I suspect with time we will see a return of the luddites. But this time, they will be the technologically savvy people who realize the dangers all of this presents.”
See also: the Unibomber (Ted Kaczynski).
We are rapidly approaching a point where the government will no longer be watching you via your devices, your devices will watching you for the government.