Readit NewsIf contagion wasn't a factor, I'd rather test in the kitchen, it's cozier.
Are you suggesting CSAM will infect more unwilling victims if it gets into a private iCloud account?
On one hand:
We are blessed to have access to mass genetic vector vaccines. Genetic vector vaccines are amazing at shaving off the sharp edge of the pandemic. Even after effectiveness drops against infection, they are still amazing at preventing severe infections. "VE for severe disease is *still high* after 6 months - 94% for ages 40-59, 86% for 60+.", https://twitter.com/_lewisy/status/1430291421085552641.
On the other hand:
* There is no path to ZeroCovid due to high airborne infectiousness, leaky genetic vector vaccines, immense human global population and reported animal reservoirs.
* The genetic vector vaccine effectiveness appears to diminish after ~6 months, thus booster shots.
* Leaky genetic vector vaccines are bound to give raise to vaccine-resistant variants, just like incomplete antibiotic courses give raise to antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
* Every time a new genetic vector vaccine variant is developed, it takes a long time to pass the FDA tests and even then it carries a tiny, but not zero, risk of ADE. OK, we'll roll the Russian Roulette once. But we can't forever play Russian Roulette with a mutating virus.
“Zero COVID” was never possible.
According to Apple only images that will be uploaded to iCloud will be scanned.
If this is the case there is zero reason to scan locally and you can just scan the uploaded image once it is on the server.
Apple has not implemented E2E nor has it released a statement indicating this will be implemented in the future.
You’re having a house party. Because of the pandemic, you’d rather people who have COVID not attend. You can’t trust everyone to get vaccinated or get tested beforehand. So, you decided to set up a rapid-test system, just to be sure.
Would you rather test in your kitchen or your driveway?
COVID-19 in some form was always going to be around forever. The goal was never complete eradication. Perhaps the miracle of the mRNA vaccine led us to fantasize, a little too openly, about going back to the pre-pandemic status quo. But that was never going to be the case.
Personally, I’ve already moved on. I’ll wear a mask as the situation dictates. I’ll get the boosters. I’ll keep mailing in my nasal tests twice a week and check the results. I’ll keep an eye on the hospital numbers and modify my risky behavior as needed. I won’t argue with people about the mask, about vaccines, about the origins. I’ll work from home as long as they’ll let me and go into the office when they say I’ve got to — or I’ll find another job.
I’ve already made peace with this thing. I’ve moved on. If I get it, I get it — but there’s no real use in obsessing over it any longer. I’ve adapted, and I’m ok with that.
You’re free to label that histrionics, but I’m the one who has to face myself in the mirror.
- Having the global reserve currency
- Being able to raise taxes at will to fight inflation
It may be possible that with a one-world government and global agreement on central currency that we could get to this. But instead the US only has the global reserve currency, and the political will to print it seemingly infinitely, but not the ability to raise taxes dynamically.
We are already seeing high inflation (by recent US standards) that is beginning to become politically untenable. A full-throated MMT policy would be impossible in the current environment.
Even worse there are major threats to USD as the global reserve currency, from Bitcoin to China RMB. I fear the politicians are playing with fire and the lack of fiscal discipline will lead to serious backlash and the reduction in global financial power for the US.
In the physical world, we have a cascading set of governments, councils and countries we form part of in a participatory process. If someone is smoking next door I can raise it with the home owners association. Or my local council. Or if laws need to be changed, I can talk to my member of parliament or get involved in the local political process. As a society we spent thousands of years and countless deaths to reach this fragile place where we take collective responsibility for our shared spaces and communities. Who pays for the roads? We all do. Who sets the rules for public spaces? We all do.
On the Internet, we absconded from our collective responsibility to invest in shared infrastructure. So, absent other investment, a bunch of US corporations went around creating “free” services. You don’t want to pay for infrastructure? No problem. We’ll cover the bill, so long as you don’t mind us tracking you everywhere, selling information about you to advertising brokers, and advertising to you directly. Don’t like the spaces we created? We’ll aim some of the best AIs humans have ever created at your mind to algorithmically find your attentional weaknesses. All to keep you hooked on outrage, so we can show you more ads. You don’t live in the US? We don’t care. We’re in charge and we’re enforcing American “decency” standards on everyone. Don’t like the feudal empire we built? You’re welcome to delete your account and banish yourself from our society. If we don’t do that ourselves first, automatically. Good luck with the other feudalist corporate empires down the road.
We’re all paying for this as we watch social trust fray around us. We’re paying with a generation lost to outrage wars on Twitter, antivaxers on Facebook, the capital hill riots, teen suicide, conspiracy theories, and witch hunts. All pushed on people by algorithms that our community has created in a desperate attempt to maximise “engagement”. All so we can show more ads at any cost. Never mind if democratic liberal society crumbles in the process.
We’re kings of the world, and the only responsibility anyone can name is to the almighty dollar. Somehow maximising shareholder value is held in higher regard than our responsibility to leave a functioning society to our children. Help us all, but we need to do better than this.
I’m using COVID as an excuse to move away and start drawing down my involvement with all of it. I spent years trying to work my way into one of the few tech companies I considered at least nominally not trying to ruin the world for money but that’s not even enough.
We have built a dystopia, and short of finding a way to dismantle it that still lets me pay the rent and eat and not resign myself to a cat food retirement, I just want to get as far away from it as possible.