Olives @olives@qoto.org

I do remember Andersson, the edge lord (his entire history seems to involve provocation). His paper was bizarre. It was like trying to see if he could feel obscure "vibes" other people were feeling during masturbation.

I don't think anyone took it seriously, and it didn't really tell us anything useful (it might as well have been shouting into the wind), but as is sometimes the case, someone might get Q conspiracy theorists looking for "nefarious plots".

Oh, I see someone who is intersex.

That kind of reminds me of the controversy over those non-consensual surgeries carried out on intersex infants, particularly as they apparently often lead to negative outcomes.

Banning facial recognition in say Clearview and other forms of surveillance would probably be better than some kind of facial recognition development license (especially, as it's likely to turn into a bureaucratic rubber stamp where it matters).

Banning all facial recognition might be impractical, as there are things like Face ID where you login to a device with your face (although, I've never been keen on that).

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/women-who-stray/202309/why-narcissists-are-more-likely-to-identify-as-porn-addicts

"Externalizing responsibility and blaming others are common features of narcissism, as persons high in narcissism rarely see themselves as at fault for problems or misbehaviors. In recently published research, I was honored to assist several excellent addiction-and-personality researchers in exploring whether certain components of narcissism were related to identifying oneself as addicted to pornography, from the perspective that seeing oneself as addicted to pornography was a form of externalized responsibility: placing blame on pornography for one’s sexual or interpersonal struggles."

Paul O’Halloran looks like an abusive psychopath. I suggest that people in Victoria, Australia write to their elected reps to get him removed from all positions of authority.

Some of Beier's measures look pretty suspect.

In one, he decided an offender not wanting to be punished harshly meant they were "mental disturbed" (presumably because it deviates from the norms of majority), even though it rationally makes no sense for someone to want to be punished harshly.

Plucking random variables like that out of context isn't very useful imo.

"Article 19. Freedom of thought and conscience shall not be violated."

"Article 21. Freedom of assembly and association as well as speech, press and all other forms of expression are guaranteed.
No censorship shall be maintained, nor shall the secrecy of any means of communication be violated."

Don't worry, I am well aware that Article 21 of the Japanese Constitution protects freedom of expression (also that Article 19 protects freedom of thought).

Someone keeps telling me that.

Also, that sounds pretty cool. The world needs more of that.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/09/apple-and-google-are-introducing-new-ways-defeat-cell-site-simulators-it-enough

"Earlier this year Google announced another new mobile security setting for Android. This new setting allows users to prevent their phone from using a “null cipher” when making a connection with a cell tower. In a well-configured network, every connection with a cell tower is authenticated and encrypted using a symmetric cipher, with a cryptographic key generated by the phone's sim card and the tower it is connecting to.

However, when the null cipher is used, communications are instead sent in the clear and not encrypted.

Null ciphers are useful for tasks like network testing, where an engineer might need to see the content of the packets going over the wire. Null ciphers are also critical for emergency calls where connectivity is the number one priority, even if someone doesn't have a SIM card installed.

Unfortunately fake base stations can also take advantage of null ciphers to intercept traffic from phones, like SMS messages, calls, and non-encrypted internet traffic."

"Apple announced that in iOS 17, out September 18, iPhones will not connect to insecure 2G mobile towers if they are placed in Lockdown Mode."

I never understood why people like Unity.

It would be nice to stop using "obscenity" as a charge to demote more serious charges to.

It is unnecessarily confusing, and could be better solved with real judicial discretion (and just straight-up admitting that not all criminals who do x are the same).

Obscenity is an archaic concept which hasn't really been a thing in over a decade, and frankly, it would be nice to just put an end to it entirely.

Hmm... Well, you should always oppose censorship by writing to elected reps territorial, state, and federal.

https://reclaimthenet.org/senators-curb-deceptive-ai-and-deepfakes
There are some things to consider here:

1) Facial recognition is worst when the government is using it, particularly for law enforcement purposes. It can also be bad when private companies are using it for surveillance purposes.

I don't think there needs to be a new special regulator who issues licenses to boot to deal with this though.

2) I'm not sure anyone is using "deepfakes" in election ads for deceptive purposes. Still, if it is simply for campaign ads, that isn't as bad as exaggerated worries about their political impact more broadly on social media.

I'll leave this for free speech people to dig into though.

3) "The proposed mandate will require government licensing for firms developing AI technologies with a high potential for misuse including large language models like those developed by OpenAI"

Every technology has a "potential for misuse". This is not a compelling argument.

I'm not a fan of the government trying to get involved here, especially as a fair bit of discourse around LLMs and "potential harms" has been abysmal. Also, the government not approving of people engaging in particular forms of speech looks a lot like a violation of the First Amendment.

For politics specifically, while someone could abuse this tool (as they could other tools), it hasn't been shown it is that impactful. Even if it had some impact, it doesn't stand to reason that a heavy-handed regimen which would likely go far beyond that (as is often the case with government) is the right course of action.

https://www.eff.org/press/releases/appeals-court-upholds-publicresourceorgs-right-post-public-laws-and-regulations

"Technical standards like fire and electrical codes developed by private organizations but incorporated into public law can be freely disseminated without any liability for copyright infringement, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday."

"As part of its mission of promoting public access to all kinds of government information, Public Resource acquires and posts online a wide variety of public documents, such as nonprofits’ tax returns, government-produced videos, and standards incorporated into law by reference.

These standards include electrical, fire safety, and consumer safety codes that have been mandated by governments.

But without Public Resource’s work, they are often difficult to access, much less share with others, which means that areas of law that profoundly affect our daily life are obscured from our view.

Even courts have had trouble accessing the laws that they are supposed to apply."

Maybe, if I get pushed to nerd hard enough, I'll invent an android and your child abuse problems will be solved, lol.

https://edri.org/our-work/the-stop-scanning-me-movement-organised-a-mass-protest-in-berlin-against-dangerous-surveillance-law/

"A person armed with an angle grinder stands in front of a yellow mailbox. The crowd looks on tensely as the tool screeches loudly as it hits the metal. Police are also present, but do not intervene.

After a short time, the mailbox gives way. The metal is broken and so is the protection of the letters from prying eyes.

Anne Herpertz, a German politician from the Pirate Party Germany, takes out letter after letter and reads them aloud: “Trade secrets of a start-up, name and address of a whistleblower and other confidential information.”

The brute force of this action is a symbol of what the European Commission is planning to do with its surveillance law on chat control (CSAR): breaking the digital privacy of letters for everyone.

A few meters away, the Interior Ministers’ Conference (IMK) is taking place with a special guest: the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, who is responsible for the CSAR proposal. She has come to promote her unprecedented surveillance plans."