Wine Jar Cynics

How did we become "cynical" of tech? For Gene It starts in China, for Dio and Mac they were always distrustful and cynical of authority.

The surveillance state is nothing new, the difference is that Covid-19 has given the surveillance state what it need's to develop into it's own pandemic.

Bibliography/Footnotes:

• Clearview has failed to demonstrate that it can be trusted to protect Americans' privacy," Markey, a member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said in a statement. "I'm concerned that if this company becomes involved in our nation's response to the coronavirus pandemic, its invasive technology will become normalized, and that could spell the end of our ability to move anonymously and freely in public."

• https://www.cnet.com/news/senator-questions-clearview-ai-over-coronavirus-tracking-plans/

• The company has developed technology that can match faces to a database of more than three billion images indexed from the Internet, including social media applications.[1] Founded by Hoan Ton-That and Richard Schwartz, the company maintained a low profile until late 2019, when its usage by law enforcement was reported on.

• In China, people were required to wear a digital wristband and download the StayHomeSafe app, which worked together to enforce quarantine requirements. Travelers returning to India and Bangladesh received hand stamps that marked them as meant to be in quarantine.

• https://apnews.com/article/ab4cbfb5575671c5630c2442bc3ca75e (covid19 data shared with police)

• We oppose automated contact tracing based on phone location data. It is insufficiently granular to identify when two people were close enough together to transmit the virus, but it will expose where we’ve been and what we’ve been doing.

• https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/13/mobile-location-data-and-covid-19-qa

• https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/27/nyregion/nypd-robot-dog.html

Meden Agan "Nothing In Excess" Everything should be in moderation, including your enthusiasm or lack thereof regarding technological progress. Ideology is not a problem; ideological extremism IS. Anti-tech terrorists and technocratic authoritarians are both extreme. In this episode, Dio and Gene discuss the different shades/degrees of enthusiasm towards tech.

Privacy is not a luxury or privilege it is a right. Dio and Gene talk about many reasons why it's important to care about your privacy including: power, autonomy, anonymity and free speech.

Gene Mac and Modern Monk Heru discuss what is information overload and how it affects society and what we can do to limit the effects of it on an individual scale.

Gene and Mac discuss wisdom, philosophy and social critique with Modern Monk from U Are The Gym Podcast.

Gene explains how the Romans modified and adapted the Cynic philosophy in accordance with their traditional virtues/values.

Dio and Gene speak about the famous Pandora's Jar story as well as Nick Bostrom's: Unfinished Fable of The Sparrows. The point is to illustrate the unforeseen circumstances of disruptive technology.

Gene and Mac discuss three groups of people who are trying to reach their goals/dreams. Ask yourself this, are you living your best life? When the grim reaper smiles at you while you smile back? If not, why not try to reach your peak? You only live once...

1. These who are satisfied; they've reached their own little pasture.
2. Those who want to reach greener pastures (but often times don't take the first steps)
3. Those who are sacrificing something and struggling to get to the green pastures.

If you're new to the Cynic philosophy, start here. This is an overview of what the philosophy of Kynicism tries to teach.