There's a lot of frustration over technology - laws, giant corporations, access to data, and a future devoid of freedom as technology driven by legislation takes over. I have a different take. My thesis is everything happening is for the good. It pushes us to innovate. We will innovate and the technology will set us free. John said the TRUTH will set us free. Technology is the application of knowledge, the application of TRUTH, and the TECHNOLOGY will set us free. Listen now to learn more.
Hunter Powers: Welcome to the One I'm your host, Hunter Powers, broadcasting live from our nation's capital, DC proper, Washington DC. Today's one idea is the technology will set us free. This one is mine, though I'm sure it's inspired by many others. Of course it started with John. It was John who said the truth will set us free, and now I say the technology will set us free.
Hunter Powers: This is a pet peeve of mine. There's a lot of bad news about tech. Someone is censoring someone. Someone is allowing someone to say something that someone doesn't want someone to say. Someone is spying on someone else. Encrypted, not encrypted. There's been a lot in the news recently about Hong Kong and as American technology companies have a greater and greater presence over there they have to conform more and more with their government laws, which require, or it seems at a minimum strongly suggest, that they have unencumbered access to all the data, all your personal data.
Hunter Powers: And in America we, we're a little bit better, but we still want access to the data. Perhaps we have a judicial process for getting the access. You need a warrant. You need probable cause, but then, sure, yeah, here's the data. And probably sometimes that process works well and other times not so well, or it's taken advantage of, or there are loopholes, there are loopholes in everything. To some degree, a lot of what we discuss on this podcast are loopholes. Here's the way everyone else interprets it, but here's how we can interpret it and we can use it to our advantage. And so of course these loopholes get used against us. It makes sense. And again, sometimes for the good, sometimes for the not so good, but people get really upset over this, this invasion of privacy. Everything is being monitored, everything is being watched. You can't say this, you can't say that. In the future they'll have scores, where they will, they will score you based off of your, your activity and what you've said, and then this'll be used in something blah, blah blah.
Hunter Powers: And people are worried, well I should say some people are worried, because they don't like feeling as though they're controlled, and this, this seems like control. As computers and technology inevitably progress, there will be more and more control and you're not going to have any freedom. And then there's this angle of a few companies controlling everything. People are very concerned, people are very concerned that when you want to watch funny videos, you go to YouTube, and they have a lot more than funny videos, but just go with me a little bit. When you want to watch funny videos, you go to YouTube. When you want to see what the family's up to you go to Facebook. When you want to see what people are angry about you go to Twitter. And when you want to read the news, you go to Reddit. And there are no other options, or it's impossible for someone to come along and take over. These companies have become our stewards. These companies make a lot of money and these companies have these paid advocates, these, these lobbyists that go and tweak our laws to their advantage and we're upset. And if we're not upset, we should be upset. And if we're not upset now, we will be upset in the future.
Hunter Powers: And I believe that represents the average opinion out there. I am not saying that you agree with this opinion. I am just saying that this is the average opinion, and now I will give you on un-average opinion, which is that I believe all of this is for the good. Massive consolidation, laws, regulations. Don't do that. Don't say that. We need access to all of that. It's all for the good.
Hunter Powers: And here's why, because all of these problems or all of these opportunities can be solved by technology and it's only when faced with these issues, that we see the innovation, that we see the path forward and we get moving faster. Incredible encryption that no one is going to break in hundreds of years is very easily possible, but it's not prioritized because there isn't a need. But when it becomes a problem, it starts becoming prioritized, and data privacy becomes an inherent quality of the technology. People are upset about giant corporations controlling everything and no one could ever, no one could ever come along and take them over.
Hunter Powers: Well, this is just such an absurd idea because we can look to our history and there were so many companies that were giants at one point and now, well, now we can't even remember their names. And part of the argument on the technology side goes that no one could ever compete with these giants because of the resources that they have. They have so much computational power and they have so much influence that they're able to route so much of the internet's traffic with priority towards their computational resources, that no one could ever come along and upset them. That's the theory anyways. But again, the technology is answering this question. There is a whole field of distributed, decentralized technology that is rapidly evolving, and maybe it isn't the exact answer to this question, but there will be an answer to this question.
Hunter Powers: Tell us what we can't do and that's where we're going to focus all of our energy. It's what happens. We don't like being told you can't, and if you realize this, that every time you say no, not allowed, you're not allowed to do that, that a whole bunch of energy and focus is going to be placed there, then you can use it to your advantage. And so in the short term they will win and the longterm technology will win. Technology is the great democratizer. I get to talk to you now because of technology. Everyone gets to be connected to everyone because of technology, and there will be hurdles along the way, but the technology will set us free, and this doesn't mean that you have to be a slave to the technology, that you have to worship the technology.
Hunter Powers: It's merely that it exists and that it will continue to evolve. I'm reminded of the whole mutually assured destruction angle of nuclear warfare. We don't have nuclear warfare because if we shoot a nuclear warhead, than someone else is going to shoot one right back at us. And I would suggest that technology is, are, are as an individual, mutually assured destruction. You don't have to use it, you don't have to embrace it. You can ignore it, but it's there for you if you need it. And if it's not there today, it'll be there tomorrow and it will evolve at the rate it is pushed against.
Hunter Powers: And sure there'll be setbacks, there will be trials and tribulations. But to quote Harvey Dent of Batman, the night is darkest just before the dawn. You got to believe in the people and the people will build the technology and the technology will set us free. And so you, you must refuse to be artificially limited by technology. And technology doesn't have to be computing, by the way. Technology is broadly the application of knowledge for practical purposes. And what is knowledge but truth?
Hunter Powers: And so maybe we end back at the beginning with John that the truth will set us free and perhaps this is an answer to how the truth sets us free, and that is that the technology or the application of that knowledge will set us free. And that is your one idea for today. I am Hunter Powers, broadcasting live from our nation's capital. As we say in the city, DC proper. And until next time.