Dystopian Surveillance Is Becoming a Reality • Hacker News Board

Re: Dystopian Surveillance Is Becoming a Reality

#61

Post by iugtmkbdfil834 » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 6:17 PM UTC

moomoo11 wrote: post #57

in_absentia wrote: post #47

Many geeks are the embodiment of the "don't trust the government" / "don't trust corporations" counterculture, but when equity grants entered the equation, we architected much of the modern techno-surveillance state. Flock is an YC company. Probably a quarter of the people who frequent this site work at Meta or Google. We're always eager to say how much we dislike it, but there's so little self-reflection in our comm…

i mean do you want the honest answer? i’m not a white american guy so i can say it. importing hordes of foreign tech workers or hiring asians broadly whose culture is very much the opposite of “don’t tread on me” led to much of this. might not be comfortable to say but most of our tech companies are led by people who aren’t “Americana” (cultural) and broadly speaking, there are very few people like me (i’m asian) tha…

The fascinating part is that fuck the consequences was until more recently kinda penalized, but advent of tech overlords changed that calculus ( they even have their own saying to capture that 0.

Re: Dystopian Surveillance Is Becoming a Reality

#62

Post by moomoo11 » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 6:20 PM UTC

iugtmkbdfil834 wrote: post #61

moomoo11 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i mean do you want the honest answer? i’m not a white american guy so i can say it. importing hordes of foreign tech workers or hiring asians broadly whose culture is very much the opposite of “don’t tread on me” led to much of this. might not be comfortable to say but most of our tech companies are led by people who aren’t “Americana” (cultural) and broadly speaking, there are very few people like me (i’m asian) tha…

The fascinating part is that fuck the consequences was until more recently kinda penalized, but advent of tech overlords changed that calculus ( they even have their own saying to capture that 0.

yes and it wasn’t always that way. most of these trends of the “god like” founder are maybe from the past 30 years.

and it reeks of extractive personalities that took over

Re: Dystopian Surveillance Is Becoming a Reality

#63

Post by autoexec » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 6:22 PM UTC

GrinningFool wrote: post #26

autoexec wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The law states that you cannot photograph of film people without their consent, even in the street What country do you live in? This is almost certainty not true in the US

https://www.recordinglaw.com/party-two-party-consent-states/

From that same link: "Two-party consent laws apply to private conversations where participants have a reasonable expectation of privacy."

You have no reasonable expectation of privacy when you are in public or can be clearly heard from public. If you are "in the street" no one needs to get your permission to record you or what you say.

Re: Dystopian Surveillance Is Becoming a Reality

#64

Post by soraki_soladead » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 6:24 PM UTC

moomoo11 wrote: post #57

in_absentia wrote: post #47

Many geeks are the embodiment of the "don't trust the government" / "don't trust corporations" counterculture, but when equity grants entered the equation, we architected much of the modern techno-surveillance state. Flock is an YC company. Probably a quarter of the people who frequent this site work at Meta or Google. We're always eager to say how much we dislike it, but there's so little self-reflection in our comm…

i mean do you want the honest answer? i’m not a white american guy so i can say it. importing hordes of foreign tech workers or hiring asians broadly whose culture is very much the opposite of “don’t tread on me” led to much of this. might not be comfortable to say but most of our tech companies are led by people who aren’t “Americana” (cultural) and broadly speaking, there are very few people like me (i’m asian) tha…

the problem isn't the workers. plenty of "white american guys" with a "don't tread on me" culture share this goal. scapegoating "hordes of foreign tech workers or hiring asians broadly" ignores that the SV culture rewards this.

> so the goal for most of them is to make 300k base and 300k stock per year. fuck the consequences.

"What could be more American than that?" — Wadsworth, Clue (1985)

Re: Dystopian Surveillance Is Becoming a Reality

#65

Post by jrumbut » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 6:27 PM UTC

bradgessler wrote: post #18

The solution is legal and political, not technical.

The solution is all of the above and more.

Every big problem needs to be addressed from multiple angles, whatever you can do, you can contribute to the solution.

Re: Dystopian Surveillance Is Becoming a Reality

#66

Post by esseph » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 6:28 PM UTC

in_absentia wrote: post #47

Many geeks are the embodiment of the "don't trust the government" / "don't trust corporations" counterculture, but when equity grants entered the equation, we architected much of the modern techno-surveillance state. Flock is an YC company. Probably a quarter of the people who frequent this site work at Meta or Google. We're always eager to say how much we dislike it, but there's so little self-reflection in our comm…

> Probably a quarter of the people who frequent this site work at Meta or Google.

No, lol

That would make up between 0.3% and 0.5% of the global tech workforce, if you added all of their employees together.

Re: Dystopian Surveillance Is Becoming a Reality

#67

Post by ultimafan » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 6:36 PM UTC

moomoo11 wrote: post #57

in_absentia wrote: post #47

Many geeks are the embodiment of the "don't trust the government" / "don't trust corporations" counterculture, but when equity grants entered the equation, we architected much of the modern techno-surveillance state. Flock is an YC company. Probably a quarter of the people who frequent this site work at Meta or Google. We're always eager to say how much we dislike it, but there's so little self-reflection in our comm…

i mean do you want the honest answer? i’m not a white american guy so i can say it. importing hordes of foreign tech workers or hiring asians broadly whose culture is very much the opposite of “don’t tread on me” led to much of this. might not be comfortable to say but most of our tech companies are led by people who aren’t “Americana” (cultural) and broadly speaking, there are very few people like me (i’m asian) tha…

Shame that people are down voting you, there's an uncomfortable truth to it I don't think people want to face.

Culture is defined by people not borders- simply crossing an arbitrary line doesn't change someone's beliefs and values.

The immigration boom especially on the West coast has vastly diluted assimilation into American culture- coming from an immigrant, who married into another family of immigrants- too many people move here and stick to their own cultural enclave, building a version of their home country in miniature instead of trying to integrate.

Re: Dystopian Surveillance Is Becoming a Reality

#68

Post by anigbrowl » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 6:37 PM UTC

fragmede wrote: post #40

edgyquant wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it’s bad even for an individual why does someone I speak to need to ever have a transcript of our chat? I understand in a professional setting but if we’re just having a drink its weird

Because having a chat with you was special and I want to remember it but my aging fallible human brain is going to forget it, so I'd like to be able to remember it and hold on to and cherish that moment we shared.

You're definitely going to forget it if you don't have to make any effort to remember it.

Re: Dystopian Surveillance Is Becoming a Reality

#69

Post by anigbrowl » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 6:40 PM UTC

tumdum_ wrote: post #34

GrinningFool wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My friend, if there's a reporter standing behind you, it could end up on the nightly news It's a matter of scale. Now everybody with a device is a reporter.

It’s been 20 years since first iphone, this is nothing new. And somehow people are not recording everyone all the time.

Live streamers make a habit of doing this and are widely hated for it.

Re: Dystopian Surveillance Is Becoming a Reality

#70

Post by tumdum_ » Tue, Sep 15, 2026, 6:43 PM UTC

ux266478 wrote: post #52

tumdum_ wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s been 20 years since first iphone, this is nothing new. And somehow people are not recording everyone all the time.

What is new is that now people will be recording everyone all the time, as a default.

That’s simply not possible with the announced Apple products. Afaict, Apple will let people save *transcripts* of last 15s and save *summaries* of transcripts.