Tag: policy

Yang Horrible Tech Policy

the more we hear from Yang about his tech policy ideas, the more ridiculous and completely disconnected from the actual tech world he seems. He got a lot of flak a couple months back when he advocated for voting via your mobile device via blockchain which he declared to be “fraud proof.” This was universally mocked by security professionals and cryptocurrency experts, including one who described the proposal as “unbelievably dumb.”

So, his pro-tech campaign had already hit some choppy waters, and they got much, much worse last week when he introduced his official policy for regulating technology firms that is so filled with bad ideas that I initially thought it was a parody. It may be the single worst tech policy proposal of any current or former candidate for President (and, frankly, nearly all of them are pretty bad). It’s as if he took all the terrible ideas that Senator Josh Hawley has been proposing over the last year or so and said “Oh, I can top all of those with worse proposals.”

Suing to Save the World

the young activists of Juliana v. United States have grown ever more empowered, both within the courtroom and without. “I think that’s really important because something we harp on a lot is that it’s not just about us 21 plaintiffs, or even just about these last 4 years. What we’re doing is indicative of a wider movement and a wider change that’s happening with just young people stepping up to governments and stepping up to people in power.”

Encryption Over Backdoors

In an extraordinary essay, the former FBI general counsel Jim Baker makes the case for strong encryption over government-mandated backdoors: In the face of congressional inaction, and in light of the magnitude of the threat, it is time for governmental authorities — including law enforcement — to embrace encryption because it is one of the few mechanisms that the United States and its allies can use to more effectively protect themselves from existential cybersecurity threats, particularly from China. This is true even though encryption will impose costs on society, especially victims of other types of crime.

Mesh networks

Over the last 10 years, communities seeking more resilient and responsive infrastructures that are more closely aligned with their commitment to common resources and mutual aid have chosen to build their own networks. Greta Byrum tells the story of their efforts — from Brooklyn to Detroit, Tennessee, and the Hudson Valley — and the lessons learned on the way to a People’s Internet. The process has not been seamless: Their builders must navigate bureaucracy and neighborly tensions, and the connectivity these networks ultimately provide isn’t of the lightning-speed frictionless sort promised by the major commercial providers. Yet local networks — owned, operated, and governed by those who use them — don’t simply link devices together into a mesh; they also link people together into a community of stewardship and self-governance.

Biased Energy Discussion

There seems to be systemic racism or stupidity in the analysis of the world energy situation. Whenever there is a global analysis of the cost of different energy sources, there is a focus on the cost of energy projects in the USA and Western Europe. However, 80-90% of the actual new energy construction action is in Asia and the Middle East. Over 80% of the reactors under construction being built by China, India, Russia and South Korea are doing fine. They are 33-50% of the cost and usually are complete in 4-6 years.

Age-Weighted Voting?

The young will experience the effects of policies passed today for the greatest length of time but this is not reflected in their voting power. Put differently, the time-horizon of (self-interested) older voters is short so perhaps this biases the political system towards short time-horizon policies such as deficit spending or kicking the can down the road on global warming. Philosopher William MacAskill offers an alternative, age-weighted voting. one way of extending political time horizons and increasing is to age-weight votes. The idea is that younger people would get more heavily weighted votes than older people, in proportion with life expectancy. A natural first pass system (though I think it could be improved upon) would be: 18–27yr olds: 6x voting weight 28–37yr olds: 5x voting weight 38–47yr olds: 4x voting weight 48–57yr olds: 3x voting weight 58–67yr olds: 2x voting weight 68+yr olds: 1x voting weight

The US is behind on 5G

No American company makes the devices that transmit high-speed wireless signals. Huawei is the clear leader in the field; the Swedish company Ericsson is a distant second; and the Finnish company Nokia is third. It is almost surprising that the Defense Department allowed the report to be published at all, given the board’s remarkably blunt assessment of the nation’s lack of innovation and one of the biggest impediments to rolling out 5G in the United States: the Pentagon itself. The broadband spectrum needed to create a successful network was reserved not for commercial purposes but for the military.

Scooters

At least at eye level, the lax regulations France does have – the minimum age is 8, cities may choose to permit or prohibit riding on the sidewalk, riding on all streets with speed limit up to 50 km/h is required – appear sufficient. The American, British, and Italian approaches are too draconian and only serve to discourage this mode of transportation.