The Apocalypse Will Not Be Digitized
September 24, 2015 9:32 PM Subscribe
Life After A Total Hack. "A short story about the biggest fear you don’t even know you have," by Jon Methven. LinkedIn, eHarmony and Last.fm were all "hacked wide open this week [June 6, 2012] .. But what would happen to us if everything got compromised?"
Retooled post of a deleted post in screwball honor of First Post Month. As a writer friend put it at the time, "The best thing I've read about the Ashley Madison hack was published by BuzzFeed ... Three years ago." (SLBF)
Retooled post of a deleted post in screwball honor of First Post Month. As a writer friend put it at the time, "The best thing I've read about the Ashley Madison hack was published by BuzzFeed ... Three years ago." (SLBF)
The digital comic Private Eye has a premise like this. One day in the near future "the cloud bursts" and reveals everyone's secrets, causing an anonymizing backlash. Decades later, people wear intricate masks as a matter of course, and technology remains mired in a pre-internet state. (Even Blockbuster's back!)
posted by Rhaomi at 10:09 PM on September 24, 2015 [27 favorites]
posted by Rhaomi at 10:09 PM on September 24, 2015 [27 favorites]
I like the idea of them restocking my larder.
posted by LuckyMonkey21 at 10:21 PM on September 24, 2015
posted by LuckyMonkey21 at 10:21 PM on September 24, 2015
Seems like a good Black Mirror premise.
I found the story itself a little quotidian. I kept hoping it would surprise me, but it never really did.
posted by painquale at 10:49 PM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
I found the story itself a little quotidian. I kept hoping it would surprise me, but it never really did.
posted by painquale at 10:49 PM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
Wow Rhaomi, holy crap. The art in that comic is glorious. Even by Big Name print comic standards that's great.
posted by emptythought at 12:29 AM on September 25, 2015
posted by emptythought at 12:29 AM on September 25, 2015
Post cloudburst, I could definitely see a segment of the population going for the masks and happy to rent physical media using cash. But I could also see this potential future as the partial death not only of privacy but of shame. Secrets will not be kept and can not be kept. So why worry? Seems like a natural evolution of the path we're taking as a society. Where many, many things which were once shameful are no longer.
And I could also see identity mixers. People voluntarily trading names and identities in order to mask their specific path through life. Could make for some lovely murder mysteries. When no one has any secrets left, and yet they are never who they say they are, then whodunit?
posted by honestcoyote at 12:29 AM on September 25, 2015 [14 favorites]
And I could also see identity mixers. People voluntarily trading names and identities in order to mask their specific path through life. Could make for some lovely murder mysteries. When no one has any secrets left, and yet they are never who they say they are, then whodunit?
posted by honestcoyote at 12:29 AM on September 25, 2015 [14 favorites]
This seems extremely unimaginative to me and focused on the most pedestrian consequences of a "total hack". I mean, everyone would have everyone else's passwords as well as the ability to change information in nearly any corporate or government database, and anyone could be impersonated, but the most serious financial fallout is that retailers use their ability to charge anyone for anything to pre-cognitively ship the stuff their recommendation engines spit out, based on updated information about everyone's browsing habits? And for that matter everyone has access to every network-connected camera and microphone, (like the ones that every person carries around with them all the time nowadays) but six months and a year afterwards it's still people's browsing habits and database records that are what's really interesting?
And on top of all that and all the corporate and government secrets that would have been exposed, the most salacious topic of discussion is one bigamist who had a total of two families.
David Brin was writing much more interesting fiction about loss of privacy via technology, without even needing to go so far as using a "total hack" plot device, a quarter of a century ago before most people had even heard of the internet.
posted by XMLicious at 1:36 AM on September 25, 2015 [6 favorites]
And on top of all that and all the corporate and government secrets that would have been exposed, the most salacious topic of discussion is one bigamist who had a total of two families.
David Brin was writing much more interesting fiction about loss of privacy via technology, without even needing to go so far as using a "total hack" plot device, a quarter of a century ago before most people had even heard of the internet.
posted by XMLicious at 1:36 AM on September 25, 2015 [6 favorites]
Arrgh, sorry if I was a bit harsh Devika, I missed that this is your first post. Important issues worthy of discussion but I would be really disappointed in the human endeavor if this were the best fiction written on the subject in the past three years.
posted by XMLicious at 1:43 AM on September 25, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by XMLicious at 1:43 AM on September 25, 2015 [4 favorites]
This recent thread about Maciej Cegłowski's talk has another perspective on the idea of a total hack.
posted by sneebler at 2:40 AM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
Advertising-related surveillance has destroyed our privacy and made the web a much more dangerous place for everyone. The practice of serving unvetted third-party content chosen at the last minute, with no human oversight, creates ideal conditions for malware to spread. The need for robots that can emulate human web users drives a market for hacked home computers.Pairs nicely with this jaunty 2011 HB Gary. This is a fascinating story, and scary enough that you wonder if it was forgotten too quickly.
posted by sneebler at 2:40 AM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
Civilisation collapses and Russian and Chinese cybercrime gangs fight it out over who's to be the God-Emperor of the postapocalyptic dystopia.
posted by acb at 2:40 AM on September 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by acb at 2:40 AM on September 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm looking forward to the day when someone cracks the IRS computer system.
Calculating individual income taxes each spring is the single largest computer job on the planet, and the system necessarily contains tremendous amounts of information about nearly everyone in the US. The OPM hack would be tiny by comparison.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:10 AM on September 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
Calculating individual income taxes each spring is the single largest computer job on the planet, and the system necessarily contains tremendous amounts of information about nearly everyone in the US. The OPM hack would be tiny by comparison.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:10 AM on September 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm still waiting for people to wake up and realize this dystopian present doesn't have to be. Computers can be secure and usable, and it really isn't magic... just a deep shift in your viewpoint that I've been explaining over and over for years.
posted by MikeWarot at 3:51 AM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by MikeWarot at 3:51 AM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
I just had to check, the sex with monsters site is real. What was I thinking? Of course it's real.
posted by adept256 at 3:54 AM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by adept256 at 3:54 AM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
Jpeg or it's not real :-)
But give it a couple generations and it'll just seem old hat... "huh, that bothered those old fogies??" And by generations I mean internet generations so round about mid-november.
posted by sammyo at 4:12 AM on September 25, 2015
But give it a couple generations and it'll just seem old hat... "huh, that bothered those old fogies??" And by generations I mean internet generations so round about mid-november.
posted by sammyo at 4:12 AM on September 25, 2015
HA! No way bud. Not linking that, I like it here.
you can guess the URL pretty easily
posted by adept256 at 4:20 AM on September 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
you can guess the URL pretty easily
posted by adept256 at 4:20 AM on September 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
Humans are really good at creating mores. Shortly after the cloud bursts, looking at someone else's personal data will become the mother of all taboos.
posted by klarck at 4:27 AM on September 25, 2015
posted by klarck at 4:27 AM on September 25, 2015
Imagine there's no passwords
No usernames or avatars too
Nothing to log in or out for
And no captchas to do
posted by oulipian at 4:55 AM on September 25, 2015 [11 favorites]
No usernames or avatars too
Nothing to log in or out for
And no captchas to do
posted by oulipian at 4:55 AM on September 25, 2015 [11 favorites]
MikeWarot, the notion of capability-based security is new to me, but I think I'm following it reasonably well. However, I don't see how it would prevent breaches of the Ashley Madison sort. Can you explain a little more?
posted by escape from the potato planet at 5:26 AM on September 25, 2015
posted by escape from the potato planet at 5:26 AM on September 25, 2015
I have no online presence, at least a visible one, it's come to the point that people ask me if I'm in the witness protection program. I'm going to take this experiment as far as I can and see if I can disappear into the ether before I physically pass.
posted by any major dude at 5:55 AM on September 25, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by any major dude at 5:55 AM on September 25, 2015 [3 favorites]
"This wouldn't be a problem if only people knew better and agreed to uniformly change their behaviors accordingly" is the solution to nearly every social and economic issue in the world.
posted by ardgedee at 6:22 AM on September 25, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by ardgedee at 6:22 AM on September 25, 2015 [5 favorites]
> looking at someone else's personal data will become the mother of all taboos.
Enh, we all know a diary with a lock on it is verboten, but as a trope it's always followed by the person who snoops that diary anyway. Just because we're writing our diaries incidentally through network activity doesn't mean we can count on general discretion if they're suddenly thrown open to the world.
posted by postcommunism at 6:54 AM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
Enh, we all know a diary with a lock on it is verboten, but as a trope it's always followed by the person who snoops that diary anyway. Just because we're writing our diaries incidentally through network activity doesn't mean we can count on general discretion if they're suddenly thrown open to the world.
posted by postcommunism at 6:54 AM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
One of my favorite books that covers the total-lack-of-privacy trope is The Light of Other Days by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter:
On the other hand, Anticipation Shopping would be the Best Thing Ever. Why yes, I just finished the jigsaw puzzle, and here's another one (along with a six-pack) on my doorstop! Win!
posted by math at 7:23 AM on September 25, 2015 [3 favorites]
When a brilliant, driven industrialist harnesses cutting-edge physics to enable people everywhere, at trivial cost, to see one another at all times--around every corner, through every wall--the result is the sudden and complete abolition of human privacy, forever. Then the same technology proves able to look backward in time as well.The book goes much deeper into the consequences of total observation than does the linked article. People wear masks in public, all transactions are in cash, and so on. Good stuff.
On the other hand, Anticipation Shopping would be the Best Thing Ever. Why yes, I just finished the jigsaw puzzle, and here's another one (along with a six-pack) on my doorstop! Win!
posted by math at 7:23 AM on September 25, 2015 [3 favorites]
I'm looking forward to the day when someone cracks the IRS computer system.
That already happened, earlier this year. A GAO report from March revealed multiple, critical weaknesses - post-OPM, I wouldn't be surprised if IRS is still compromised and either unaware of it, or not commenting.
posted by ryanshepard at 8:03 AM on September 25, 2015 [3 favorites]
That already happened, earlier this year. A GAO report from March revealed multiple, critical weaknesses - post-OPM, I wouldn't be surprised if IRS is still compromised and either unaware of it, or not commenting.
posted by ryanshepard at 8:03 AM on September 25, 2015 [3 favorites]
"The Dead Past" (1956) is one of Isaac Asimov's better short stories and is related to this premise, though I won't go into the details in case you want to read it and discover for yourself. (Warning: that Wikipedia article describes the entire plot.)
> This seems extremely unimaginative to me and focused on the most pedestrian consequences of a "total hack". [...] And on top of all that and all the corporate and government secrets that would have been exposed, the most salacious topic of discussion is one bigamist who had a total of two families.
You know, not everything has to deal with everything about everything. This is a clever little story that captures a few (yes, relatively inconsequential) consequences of mass privacy loss; it's amusing and entertaining and doesn't pretend to be a scholarly article on the topic. You might want to lower your Olympic standards just a wee tad, or else avoid reading matter that doesn't look like it's going to live up to them.
posted by languagehat at 8:27 AM on September 25, 2015 [3 favorites]
> This seems extremely unimaginative to me and focused on the most pedestrian consequences of a "total hack". [...] And on top of all that and all the corporate and government secrets that would have been exposed, the most salacious topic of discussion is one bigamist who had a total of two families.
You know, not everything has to deal with everything about everything. This is a clever little story that captures a few (yes, relatively inconsequential) consequences of mass privacy loss; it's amusing and entertaining and doesn't pretend to be a scholarly article on the topic. You might want to lower your Olympic standards just a wee tad, or else avoid reading matter that doesn't look like it's going to live up to them.
posted by languagehat at 8:27 AM on September 25, 2015 [3 favorites]
This seems extremely unimaginative to me and focused on the most pedestrian consequences of a "total hack". I mean, everyone would have everyone else's passwords as well as the ability to change information in nearly any corporate or government database, and anyone could be impersonated, but the most serious financial fallout is that retailers use their ability to charge anyone for anything to pre-cognitively ship the stuff their recommendation engines spit out, based on updated information about everyone's browsing habits? And for that matter everyone has access to every network-connected camera and microphone, (like the ones that every person carries around with them all the time nowadays) but six months and a year afterwards it's still people's browsing habits and database records that are what's really interesting?
I read things like this and just think, "have you EVER met a person?"
We have more computing power in our pockets than the entire Apollo mission but we mostly use it to watch people fuck and watch cats jump into boxes. Why do people think that some kind of major cloudburst would fundamentally change how people do life?
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 9:39 AM on September 25, 2015
I read things like this and just think, "have you EVER met a person?"
We have more computing power in our pockets than the entire Apollo mission but we mostly use it to watch people fuck and watch cats jump into boxes. Why do people think that some kind of major cloudburst would fundamentally change how people do life?
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 9:39 AM on September 25, 2015
>
The text in the OP introduced this as "the best" story about "The Apocalypse". Not my Olympic standards.
>
Because every aspect of life is now channeled through those computing devices in our pockets and through servers around the world, so if suddenly anyone could change the balance in your bank account and anyone else's or listen to every conversation you have while you've got your phone on you as easily as they could watch a cat video, I think they might do those things and it might have a little bit of an effect upon the world.
I mean why do you think the OP characterized an event like this by alluding to this and substituting "The Apocalypse" for "The Revolution"?
Maybe there's depth or art to this story I'm missing, I certainly don't have the greatest aesthetic sense. It's just that I agree with the OP's characterization that "if everything got compromised" the result would be a massive upheaval, but then the story feels like someone cleverly writing about how you might need extra sunscreen after the oncoming uncontrolled climate change.
posted by XMLicious at 10:50 AM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
You might want to lower your Olympic standards just a wee tad, or else avoid reading matter that doesn't look like it's going to live up to them.
The text in the OP introduced this as "the best" story about "The Apocalypse". Not my Olympic standards.
>
We have more computing power in our pockets than the entire Apollo mission but we mostly use it to watch people fuck and watch cats jump into boxes. Why do people think that some kind of major cloudburst would fundamentally change how people do life?
Because every aspect of life is now channeled through those computing devices in our pockets and through servers around the world, so if suddenly anyone could change the balance in your bank account and anyone else's or listen to every conversation you have while you've got your phone on you as easily as they could watch a cat video, I think they might do those things and it might have a little bit of an effect upon the world.
I mean why do you think the OP characterized an event like this by alluding to this and substituting "The Apocalypse" for "The Revolution"?
Maybe there's depth or art to this story I'm missing, I certainly don't have the greatest aesthetic sense. It's just that I agree with the OP's characterization that "if everything got compromised" the result would be a massive upheaval, but then the story feels like someone cleverly writing about how you might need extra sunscreen after the oncoming uncontrolled climate change.
posted by XMLicious at 10:50 AM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
Capability-based security is hardly a new idea, and existing systems are neither easy-to-use, nor even usable by any except the most dedicated, and any claims that capabilities are the panacea for our security woes ignores real-world experience with such systems.
posted by fragmede at 11:23 AM on September 25, 2015
posted by fragmede at 11:23 AM on September 25, 2015
XMLicious, thanks for noting the First Post thing and easing up a bit ... Part of what keeps me from posting on the Blue (or even commenting much) despite longtime lurker status is that it's one of the few spaces where I don't necessarily feel like the cleverest person in the room. Sometimes the healthy back-and-forth intimidates me, so I appreciate you cutting me some slack. I also appreciate you maintaining a healthy level of incisive commentary in light of that.
I'd like to note that I only framed it as "the best" in response to the Ashley Madison hack, and that characterization was borrowed from a friend in the first place. I met Arthur C. Clarke in person shortly before his passing, I certainly wouldn't claim that this piece is the best response to the storm brewing on the horizon.
Also, the reason I substituted "Apocalypse" for "Revolution" was for a snappy post title, to be honest. Had recently seen a commercial on TV riff on that phrase and was unsure whether the advertisers were making a meta-commentary or unaware of the irony.
Shortly after posting, I came across (independently of the Blue) a more compelling response in the form of that Maciej Cegłowski [Twitter, About] talk sneebler referenced above, apparently given at the FREMTIDENS INTERNET conference in Copenhagen on the 14th of this month. It's already been well-framed by teraflop's FPP, but I thought MeFi would appreciate the final words of the transcript:
"I refuse to believe that this cramped, stifling, stalkerish vision of the commercial Internet is the best we can do.
POLITE Q/A SESSION FOLLOWED BY A TSUNAMI OF APPLAUSE"
posted by Devika at 12:07 PM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
I'd like to note that I only framed it as "the best" in response to the Ashley Madison hack, and that characterization was borrowed from a friend in the first place. I met Arthur C. Clarke in person shortly before his passing, I certainly wouldn't claim that this piece is the best response to the storm brewing on the horizon.
Also, the reason I substituted "Apocalypse" for "Revolution" was for a snappy post title, to be honest. Had recently seen a commercial on TV riff on that phrase and was unsure whether the advertisers were making a meta-commentary or unaware of the irony.
Shortly after posting, I came across (independently of the Blue) a more compelling response in the form of that Maciej Cegłowski [Twitter, About] talk sneebler referenced above, apparently given at the FREMTIDENS INTERNET conference in Copenhagen on the 14th of this month. It's already been well-framed by teraflop's FPP, but I thought MeFi would appreciate the final words of the transcript:
"I refuse to believe that this cramped, stifling, stalkerish vision of the commercial Internet is the best we can do.
POLITE Q/A SESSION FOLLOWED BY A TSUNAMI OF APPLAUSE"
posted by Devika at 12:07 PM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
Because every aspect of life is now channeled through those computing devices in our pockets and through servers around the world, so if suddenly anyone could change the balance in your bank account and anyone else's or listen to every conversation you have while you've got your phone on you as easily as they could watch a cat video, I think they might do those things and it might have a little bit of an effect upon the world.
Well, I mean, not to get into a whole thing where I close-read the story from the post and all, but it doesn't seem that in the world of the story people are having their bank accounts emptied--only that if they should choose to draw on their bank accounts they can expect that someone will know about it. The story assumes a world where society has adjusted to frequent large-scale security breaches, in such a way that people have returned to going about their workaday business.
This jives with my general experience of humanity, which does not like revolutions very much at all and would just like to ensure they do not run out of laundry detergent and beer for entirely too long. [admittedly this may just be one of those times when I just don't really have anything in common with most of MetaFilter.]
I mean why do you think the OP characterized an event like this by alluding to this and substituting "The Apocalypse" for "The Revolution"?
The OP has already returned and confirmed that my thoughts on this choice were completely correct, so ...there you go.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 1:38 PM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
Well, I mean, not to get into a whole thing where I close-read the story from the post and all, but it doesn't seem that in the world of the story people are having their bank accounts emptied--only that if they should choose to draw on their bank accounts they can expect that someone will know about it. The story assumes a world where society has adjusted to frequent large-scale security breaches, in such a way that people have returned to going about their workaday business.
This jives with my general experience of humanity, which does not like revolutions very much at all and would just like to ensure they do not run out of laundry detergent and beer for entirely too long. [admittedly this may just be one of those times when I just don't really have anything in common with most of MetaFilter.]
I mean why do you think the OP characterized an event like this by alluding to this and substituting "The Apocalypse" for "The Revolution"?
The OP has already returned and confirmed that my thoughts on this choice were completely correct, so ...there you go.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 1:38 PM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
So what you're saying is that the story BuzzFeed describes as being "about the biggest fear you don’t even know you have" doesn't actually have much to fear in it? It sounds like we probably agree more than we disagree, if you were talking about the original story rather than the paragraph you quoted in your comment where I talked about things I thought were missing if "everything got compromised."
posted by XMLicious at 2:57 PM on September 25, 2015
posted by XMLicious at 2:57 PM on September 25, 2015
Anyways, beyond the story, if indeed a society-wide "total hack" only resulted in some personal information in databases being exposed, and it became available to everyone equally, I'm inclined to agree that social mores would probably adapt and the impact would be negligible. David Brin, the novelist I mentioned above, wrote a non-fiction book called The Transparent Society where he advances a similar proposal.
But besides the fact that far more serious things can happen than some data simply getting released (see for example hackers showing that they could take control of a Jeep Cherokee over the internet a few months ago) there's a danger in those societal changes only happening part-way: access to information being asymmetrical and society not completely accepting everything that might be exposed. If people can still be blackmailed or their careers derailed by certain information releases, and it's only large governments and Koch-Brothers-types who get access to the full surveillance record on people, they could for example blackmail or derail the careers of every politician you might ever want to vote for while protecting the politicians in their favor, even if you yourself could shrug off any particular detail of your life becoming universally known.
That latter scenario isn't so different from today, of course, but it seems like it might reinforce inequities and imbalances of power to a dystopian degree and make insurmountable the obstacles to returning to a more open and free society.
posted by XMLicious at 4:08 PM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
But besides the fact that far more serious things can happen than some data simply getting released (see for example hackers showing that they could take control of a Jeep Cherokee over the internet a few months ago) there's a danger in those societal changes only happening part-way: access to information being asymmetrical and society not completely accepting everything that might be exposed. If people can still be blackmailed or their careers derailed by certain information releases, and it's only large governments and Koch-Brothers-types who get access to the full surveillance record on people, they could for example blackmail or derail the careers of every politician you might ever want to vote for while protecting the politicians in their favor, even if you yourself could shrug off any particular detail of your life becoming universally known.
That latter scenario isn't so different from today, of course, but it seems like it might reinforce inequities and imbalances of power to a dystopian degree and make insurmountable the obstacles to returning to a more open and free society.
posted by XMLicious at 4:08 PM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
I think it is a premise with potential, but the story didn't do much with it in my opinion. It also reads like a first draft having which no awkward sentences somewhat of been revised for better to flow or clarity or cadence.
posted by snofoam at 5:40 PM on September 25, 2015
posted by snofoam at 5:40 PM on September 25, 2015
« Older Color my world | Once in a blue moon Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:09 PM on September 24, 2015