Plutopia News Network

In this episode of the Plutopia podcast, hosts Jon Lebkowsky, Wendy Grossman, and Scoop Sweeney discuss with guest Mike Nelson, a senior fellow at Carnegie Asia, the evolution and impact of the internet and encryption policies. Mike shares his journey from being Al Gore’s science advisor, contributing to legislation that allowed public internet access, to his current focus on technology policy at Carnegie. He reflects on the internet’s explosive growth during his tenure at the White House, highlighting the lack of cybersecurity concerns at the time compared to the multi-trillion dollar stakes and geopolitical consequences present today.

The conversation delves into the ongoing conflict between privacy advocates and law enforcement over access to encrypted communications. Mike criticizes inconsistent encryption policies and warns of the dangers of weakening encryption, which could impact a wide range of legitimate users including journalists. He also discusses the misuse of encryption and cryptocurrencies, noting the latter’s primary use in ransomware.

Further, Mike touches on his career trajectory, including his early advocacy for public internet access and his ongoing efforts to combat “stupid policy” through alternative frameworks. The discussion also covers the influence of digital technology on societal structures, politics, and personal privacy, emphasizing the need for careful policy crafting to avoid unintended consequences.

The dialogue expands to address broader technology issues like AI, digital leadership, and the sustainability of platforms like Signal. The hosts and guest critique current technology and encryption policies, debating the potential benefits and drawbacks of various regulatory approaches. Michael expresses concern over the future of encryption, digital currencies, and the overarching impact of technology on society, including the shift towards centralized digital power.

By the end of the discussion, it’s clear that while technology offers immense opportunities for innovation and problem-solving, it also presents significant challenges that require thoughtful and informed policy responses to ensure it benefits society as a whole.

The post Mike Nelson: Technology Policy first appeared on Plutopia News Network.

This time on the Plutopia podcast, our evil alien overlords, Jon and Scoop, talk about their favorite science fiction films and TV series.

The post Science Friction! first appeared on Plutopia News Network.

Filmmaker Friedrich Moser is on a crusade for truth. His new film “How to Build a Truth Engine” features investigators from the fields of technology, journalism, folklore and neuroscience who show that if you can hack the information feed, you can hack somebody’s mind.

Friedrich Moser:

Anything that happened in the world would become the cornerstone of a new conspiracy story, like a small story. In some you have this web of conspiracy stories that grow together and then on top of that you see the formation of a real conspiracy. And that’s the conspiracy that led to January 6th and the capital riot because a lot of people who were there, and I’m not talking about the Proud Boys – I’m not talking about those, but like normal ordinary people. A lot of people who were there genuinely believed that they were there to save democracy. So their feedback loop system of the model of the world that is in the mind and the real world had been cut off by relying exclusively on this online community for information. And that’s a really dangerous thing.

The post Friedrich Moser: How to Build a Truth Engine first appeared on Plutopia News Network.

In her new book, Rebel Health: A Field Guide to the Patient-Led Revolution in Medical Care., Susannah Fox focuses on the health care needs of patients and caregivers. She points out the need for better communication and networking for anyone who has difficulty navigating the American healthcare system.

Susannah Fox:

With all of the technology that we have now, at the base of it, it’s really about the connection between and among people who are facing the same challenge, who are lost in the maze of healthcare, who find out that they’re not alone. And that moment that you find that just in time someone like you, it’s the same incredible excitement that we all felt in the early days of being online, it’s the same feeling that people have now on TikTok and whatever is the latest platform.

Susannah Fox is a health and technology strategist. She is a former Chief Technology Officer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where she led an open data and innovation lab. She has served as the entrepreneur-in-residence at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and she directed the health portfolio at the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project.

The post Susannah Fox: Rebel Health first appeared on Plutopia News Network.

On the March 21st Plutopia Livestream, woke Plutopians discussed the financial woes of that orange-haired politician, the Biden impeachment hearings, RFK Junior, student loans, the University of Austin, South by Southwest and much more. “I think it was a sock puppet…”

The post Woke Plutopians Wax Philosophical! first appeared on Plutopia News Network.

David Gans has a long history of making music, writing about music, and broadcasting music.

He recently added a new entry to his musical résumé, teaching “Psychedelia and Groove: The Music and Culture of the Grateful Dead,” a continuing studies course at Stanford University.

But what I proposed was a class that was going to be very, very loosely structured. And I said, “Here are six things that we will address in these six sessions, but they won’t be rigidly divided into these things, because everybody that I invite to talk about this with me will have expertise in all these areas.”

I said, “We’ll talk about the history, we’ll talk about songwriting, we’ll talk about improvisation, we’ll talk about the culture, the deadhead culture, and how the Grateful Dead impacted the music and the world around them. And we’ll talk about the Grateful Dead’s amazing way of interpreting music – it’s one of the most important things they did was take music from outside the Grateful Dead and make it their own.”

David regularly streams performances at https://www.youtube.com/@dgans.

Photo by Nancy Carbonaro

The post David Gans: Psychedelia and Groove first appeared on Plutopia News Network.

Jen Persson is director of the UK Civil Liberties Group, Defend Digital Me.

She campaigns for a safe, fair, and transparent collection of children’s data in education and elsewhere.

What happens when you start collecting school records is that they’re about children, but those records age as the people do, and now we have a record of about a third of the UK population who have been in state education over the last 20 years. So anyone under 47 also has a national pupil record, and it is de facto becoming a go-to national identity database. It is something that other departments and even the police have started to use as how to find people. And that for me is a really concerning development and something that was foreseen and argued about 20 years ago. And I think any collection of data that is starting should be asking the same questions now about thinking about how they would be down the line. So that’s kind of one aspect of what we do is around government – state-collected information about children. And then we also look at things like technology that’s used in education, so things like biometrics, AI, apps, and platforms.

Jen is an advocate for digital privacy and human rights, is director of the digital privacy organization, Defend Digital Me. She writes about government plans to use personal data from education, health, and other parts of the public sector, for purposes beyond our reasonable expectations.

danah boyd (research on teens online)

UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child

Sonia Livingstone

Center for Democracy and Technology

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Open Rights Group

Privacy International

KOSA

The post Jen Persson: Defend Digital Me first appeared on Plutopia News Network.

This time on the Plutopia Podcast, Jake Dunagan joins us as we explore the future of governance and democracy. This podcast is from the Plutopia Live webcast on 2/22/2024.

Jake is Director of the Governance Futures Lab at the Institute for the Future. More information here: https://www.iftf.org/people/jake-dunagan/

Jake Dunagan:

As much as it is anathema to my values, the MAGA wing has shaped the conversation, and they are dominating the conversation, and they are moving the window over. And so that is, again, in a neutral sense, leadership.

And so what’s the countervailing to that, rather than just trying to hold on to the last bits of maybe majority rule? You know, maybe if you win elections, it just feels very desperate on the left to try to hold on against this juggernaut of focus. It’s not the majority, but it is a focused, mission-driven group of people that have no end point other than seizing absolute control over the system.

And so what do you do? It’s the greatest dilemma that we’ve faced, I think, in our lifetimes for sure, is what do you do when your opponent does not play by the rules, and you’re trying to hold on to legitimacy in the other group? The other side is not. I mean, I think that’s our democracy death spiral at this point.

The post Jake Dunagan: Politics and Governance first appeared on Plutopia News Network.

This time on the Plutopia podcast, we investigate Texans’ love affair with high school football.

Football culture… Capture the energy of high school football in Texas, and you could power a planet. A view of Texas from space on any Friday night in-season could be blinding – those Friday night lights at football stadiums across the state. We talked about the game and the culture on Plutopia Live, Thursday, 2/15/2024.

An urban legend claims the best time to commit burglary in an average Texas town is on a Friday night during a high school football game!

In Texas, high school football isn’t just a sport; it’s a way of life. Friday night lights illuminate small towns and big cities alike as communities gather to support their local teams. High school football games often draw large crowds and foster a sense of community pride.

However there’s a decline in football participation, particularly in high school. This decline is attributed to concerns about the harmful effects of concussions and sub-concussive hits, potentially causing brain damange in some cases, leading many parents to keep their kids away from tackle football as a safety precaution.

Changing demographics, athletic specialization, and the rise of non-sanctioned activities like club sports are also potential causes for the slumping involvement in football and other traditional sports.

Originally webcast February 15, 2023 – on the weekly Plutopia News Network Livestream at YouTube.

Photo: Keith Johnston, Unsplash

The post Football Feverish first appeared on Plutopia News Network.

Moira Meltzer-Cohen has provided legal services for persons arrested in the course of justice struggles, including Indigenous communities and social movement groups.

Moira Meltzer-Cohen:

I mean, it doesn’t just contribute to greenhouse gases, right? I think that might be sort of the thing that everyone is most aware of. But the pollution, the environmental degradation, the mutagenic potential of all of the radioactive dust that is created by different kinds of mining, these are all consequences of colonial modes of resource extraction that probably would not be happening if anyone bothered to actually follow the aspirational international law norms that are being set forth in, like for example, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. That is not really something that has been provided for in America. There are these consultation requirements that are A, very minimal, and B, often ignored.

Moira Meltzer Cohen is an educator, attorney, and abolitionist serving overlapping communities of activists, LGBTQ+, and prisoners. Moira provides criminal defense, particularly for those arrested in the course of justice struggles; representation of witnesses before federal grand juries; and advocacy for those seeking gender affirming and other necessary (but often withheld) health care while in prison.

The post Moira Meltzer-Cohen: Justice Struggles first appeared on Plutopia News Network.