What is ACTA?

via ByteSoup

Still a worthy endeavor

Nuclear power and democracy don't mix

Normally I don't post info that is common knowledge, but this just made me mad...and it proves to me that nuclear power corrupts the hell out of democratic governments. The citizen is expected to to keep his mouth shut and to stay calm even if the dear neighbors are sprouting eye-covered abscesses - and to pay his power bill. I dimly remember I was told in school that informed citizens are the cornerstone of our form of government. But that was one tech level ago, we still had black-and-white TV then, and maybe we can do without informed citizens today. Possibly, that was just a superfluous, bolted-on feature to the core function: consuming power and paying for it. Now, that the frills have been pared back, the citizen appears as a much meaner and leaner engine of consumption.

It is a miracle anyone on this wide world still believes Tepco: A sure way to find out if they are lying? Check if their mouths are moving...

So what can be done? Dmitry Orlov has some ideas.

Security is not what you think it is

2011 shapes up to be quite an interesting year: The – still ongoing – revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East make for a furious first act, followed by a short comic interlude by German ex-defense minister, ex-PhD Guttenberg. Then the large quake in Japan, the tsunami, and now…this.

This leads me to the following observation. Security, as some clever people have remarked, is not an objective state, but simply a statement about risk – of the probability of something breaking down. “Security” just means that the probability of badness happening is low enough that you can live with the consequences of the badness. But the chance of failure will never drop to zero – in any system. Thus, talking about the “absolute safety” of any system is not a technical statement, but an ideological fallacy. This fallacy is mostly based on the assumption that one can cover all angles of a project (and that means all angles, with some kind of godlike vision and understanding), that everyone involved will always do a perfect job because no one will be tired, angry, stupid, proud, distracted, distraught or greedy - ever. In short: The project will be executed by perfect men. Regrettably, one of them is in a chained up in a basement in Johannesburg (for obvious reasons), while the other refuses to speak to people until he has counted all grains of sand on a certain beach in Mexico (also for obvious reasons).

In most circumstances, perceiving a risk which is "close enough to zero" as "equal to zero" can be quite useful, even necessary. This shift enables us to leave the house, to cross streets, buy groceries, ride bikes without worrying too much, even if the risk of badness happening are far from zero. But if the consequences of badness happening approach some kind of absoluteness themselves (this country is closed to humans until further notice) it is time to have a hard look at the fallacy of "close to zero equals zero" - and those who try to sell it to us.

Happy New Year!

Life remains, as always, under construction.

I am away for a while...

...it's time for the beach. If you want to waste some time until my return, go visit 5secondfilms and go through their stuff. They will leave in childlike glee and slack-jawed wonderment.