Bruce Sterling On Total Information Awareness

securitas writes "Declan McCullagh interviews Bruce Sterling about Total Information Awareness (renamed Terrorist Information Awareness and raising concerns) or 'Poindexter's nutty scheme' as Sterling thinks of it. He predicts TIA will destabilize the government and lead to internal KGB-style coups. Whether you agree with him or not it makes for thought-provoking reading."

Well

[Ken@WearableTech]

That's all well and good but I think what we all want to know is what William Gibson thinks about T.I.A.

(Feel Free to Insert another Author's Name, or the people I turn to for public policy, Hollywood Actors.)

Also in the interview, he mentions that Bruce Sterling is not his real name. With talk of "coups inside the Republican Party" and the KGB, I think that Bruce Sterling is Tom Clancy's pseudonym.

BTW, when he says "Poindexter" he is not refering to us computer nerds, he means John Poindexter [wikipedia.org], programmer, Navy Admiral, National Security Advisor, etc.

Slashdot Humor

[Scoria]

internal KGB-style coups

In Soviet Russia... oh, forget it.

remember folks

[Anonymous Coward]

Nuclear weapons don't kill people, people kill people.

Support citizens rights to use nuclear weapons for hunting and home defense!

And of course

[Nexzus]

What would Total Information Awareness run on?

Total Information Technology.
(with apologies to Robin Williams)

Weeeee'll meet agaaain...

[kurosawdust]

I'm all for public involvement in the political process, but I guess the best we can hope for now is that this somehow leads to Slim Pickens riding a descending hydrogen bomb...

relieving

[falsification]

He predicts TIA will destabilize the government and lead to internal KGB-style coups. Boy, it's a good thing that Bruce Sterling is not paranoid or anything. Otherwise, he'd come up with some really whacky theories.

Re:The USA is over as we knew it.

[ceejayoz]

We have emarked full tilt into the arena of socialism.

Oh? My health insurance is still as expensive as fuck, and my college tuitition is $36,000 a year and rising. Those are pretty bad indicators of a "socialist state" forming...

What part of "the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed" do you not understand?

What part of "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state" do you not understand?

TIA renamed yet again...

[tchdab1]

...to Big Brother and the Holding Company.

Re:remember folks

[frankjr]

I'm not eating any of the deer you've "cooked."

Ministry of Silly Walks

[Esion Modnar]

The aim is to collect information ranging from financial and medical records to data on the way individuals walk.

You heard it here first. Poindexter and TIA is the Ministry of Silly Walks.

(And I'm supposed to feel better because they changed "total" to "terrorist"? That's just insulting to everyone's intelligence... grrr.)

Offtopic what?

[BrainInAJar]

Just reading this thread I've noticed that this is the most offtopic story I've seen yet.

The threads spawned by it range from everything from Marxism to gun control.

It's great, there aren't enough OT modpoints in the world to take care of it

Just a thought but..

[ThoreauHD]

Wanted to post something completely fictional. Because this is ./ of course- nobody believes this stuff you know. /possessed mode 1

Isn't Poindexter one of the documented Majestic members(2nd Gen.)? He shifted to info control about 10 years ago didn't he?

And, no, I'm not making this shit up(see- I'm creating suspension of disbelief!). Read through the news. This guys been globetrotting like he's searching for the cure to explosive hemmoroids. Unfortunately(depending on your POV), I think it's a little too late for what he's attempting to do.

We've all got some major trouble comin down the pipe, and Gen. Poindexter and friends will try and add a little conditioned media K-Y so it doesn't hurt so much when we get to bend over. It's a nice thought, but you can only hold enertia at bay for so long. Btw, on a semi off:off topic- has anyone seen that hollow martian rock called Phobos floatin around lately? I know where it's not, but where did it go? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? /possessed mode 0

OK, I'm better. In short- leave old Mr. Poindexter alone. He's pissin in the wind. Times almost up.

Why can't they just leave me alone!?!?

[Pointdexter]

...or 'Poindexter's nutty scheme' as Sterling thinks of it.

Huh? What did I do now?

Re:damn trolls

[Malcontent]

"Completely innocent? They were fighting to establish a despotic theocratic regime where tribal chieftains meted out medieval justice."

Yes completely innocent. Remember they were let go. Or are you suggesting they let guilty criminals go.

"Get accused of adultery? Get buried up to your head and stoned to death."

Once again you are suggesting that people guilty of such henious crimes were released by the US military. BTW did I miss the trial?

"Twice you call Gitmo and foreign bases "concentration camps." "

Yes I am. They are concentration camps. Hitler at least provided walls and a roof for his prisoners, ours are left out in the elements though.

" Is food restricted there?"

Probably. It's a common "pressure" tactic to starve people and then offer them a big mac if they talk.

"Do the detainees work 20 hr/day?"

No they are in a four by six chain link cage. They are lucky if they get an hour a week out of the cage.

"Are diseases like typhus and cholera promoted to get rid of unwanted people?""

I don't know, maybe.

"You have some twisted sense of right and wrong if you think jailing a al Qaeda soldier captured **on the battlefield** "

People captures in the battlefield are prisoners of war, they should be treated as such.

We have no idea what is being done to the prisoners in afghanistan or quatar. They are most likely being tortured and I am sure some of them die during the torture. I don't know if they are being turned into soap or not.