Mindful Play:

Jonah BossewitchPhD Candidate, Columbia University

http://alchemicalmusings.org

Free Software, Peer Production and Human Rights

NJ ♥ [

]

The Joker’s Detonators

Jonah BossewitchPhD Candidate, Columbia University

http://alchemicalmusings.org

Free Software and Human Rights

Ask me about software freedom

“Education is the unfinished business of the revolution”

Online learning and education can help reduce "extremism" in the world

Malak Zaalouk, Director of the Middle East Institute of Higher Education

Daphne Koller, Co-Founder of Coursera

Criminalizing Communications

- Intelligence and Communication have always been powerful, and often lethal.

- National Defense Authorization Act:

- Software as speech? Material support?

- Aiding and Abetting?

Playing with Fire:

- Android

- DIY Drones

- 3-D Printing

- Open-Source Guidance Systems

- Arduinos

Not just for hobbyists

Android

- General Purpose Computing Platform

- Cell phone hardware requirements have enabled drones, and the commodification of precision components

Open Source Drones

3-D Printing- Wiki Weapons project - http://defensedistributed.com

“This project might change the way we think about gun control and consumption. How do governments behave if they must one day operate on the assumption that any and every citizen has near instant access to a firearm through the Internet? Let’s find out.”

Open Source Toy Rockets

- Open hardware and software designs for high powered model rocketry & guidance systems

Arduinos

- Little Buddy in Italian

- Open-Source Actuators: Control systems that sense, decide, and act on the physical environment

Bomb Kiddies?

- How long does it take to assemble an IED?

- How long to assemble your second?

- Designs evolving on internet-time, exchanged on distributed exchanges (e.g. Pirate Bay?)

Sentient Landmines

- Face Detection?

- Networked Detonations??

- Random Detonations???

It from Bit

- Platform is somewhat irrelevant...

- The critical transitions are from:

- Hardware ⇒ Software

- Individuals ⇒ Network

Please, describe your problems

- Plug & Pray (2010)

- Dr. ELIZA - http://bit.ly/10VLdoG

Joseph Weizenbaum (1923-2008)

“We should always stay mindful of the dangers that emerge with new technology and debate those dangers, because some of them will turn out to be real."

“‘The technology itself is neutral and value-free and it just depends how one uses it...’ Well, that is false... we live in a concrete society, [and] with concrete social and historical circumstances and political realities in this society, it is perfectly obvious that when something like a computer is invented, then it is going to be adopted will be for military purposes” - http://tech.mit.edu/V105/N16/weisen.16n.html

- http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2008/03/16/joseph_weizenbaum_85_mit_professor_humanist/

Rhetorical Thought Experiments

- Will the first recognizably sentient AI be running on Free Software?

- Who will try to patent the process we know as consciousness?

Copy-Lefting Ethics? _ _

((___)) cDc communications

[ x x ] & HACKTIVISMO

\ / "A Special Message of Hope"

(' ') July 4th, 2001

(U) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

- Human rights licenses

- Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement (HESSLA)

- Torrify Ethical Software License Agreement (TESLA)

- Prohibits the use or modification of the software to violate human rights or to introduce features that spy on the user.

Freedoms Collide

- What webserver runs www.kkk.com?

- Rejected by the Free Software Foundation, and most other Free Software communities.

Robotic Arms Control

- http://icrac.net

- “say no to killer robots”

¿Questions?

- How should the average software developer think about their responsibilities towards the potential uses of their creations?

- Will proliferation of these technologies balance the inequalities, or launch arms races?

- How can we encourage this conversation?

- “Everything is valuable under the right conditions”...