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[–]Ponderer 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

This is a good point that not enough people realize.

There's a lot of aware people out there, if we worked together we could make some impressive things - e.g. new payment processors, alternative platforms that allow for more free speech, new education systems.

There's no need to focus all our energies into persuading others to see the truth.

[–]AnarchySpeach 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

The silver bullet required to magically fix our problems needs 2 impossible things.

1) A method of communication that can't be censored with the option to be anonymous

2) that is accessible through extremely simply user controls.

So far nobody's been able to figure out a way to do both. If it's simple enough for the public to use it (the people we are trying to reach) then there's always human-moderated control that will censor information. If the information is impossible to censor (through encryption or other means) it is always behind a complex wall of techno-babble that must be understood... and as science has shown, the average person is not going to get a 4 year degree in computer science for the singular purpose of type to people.

People say "blockchain" but no matter how much they scream from the rooftops... Bitcoin could still be disabled through a 51% attack with a $5b computer. It only exists because it's too expensive for any one government to shut down on their own. If a messaging program was created that was "Reddit, but the front page is impossible to censor" every country on Earth would pool together their resources to shut it down.

Funniest idea I've heard was launching a server into orbit around the moon, followed by launching a relay into Earth orbit, and then use Starlink dishes to receive and transmit the data. It would totally work, but nobody is going to spend the $8m to create "free-speech Internet 2.0" only to end up instantly in jail when they admit they can't shut it down. This fantasy also ignores the $1m upkeep cost of launching a new relay into Earth's orbit every 5 years.

Jokes aside, a more realistic approach would be to fix public schools. Bring back the scientific method. Teach kids to use it. To question everything. Stop punishing them for asking why a rule exists or why another student was punished when another was not. Any teacher that says, "Because I said so." or "Because those are the rules." should be automatically fired. Introduce a jury and trial system into schools instead of the current B.S. "Punish them both" arbitrary system. Show kids how laws and investigations work in a safe environment. The majority of people in jail confess because they were manipulated by cops who pretended to be their friends and lied to their faces. Have a child experience that so they know what to expect. Games like Tank Turn Tactics should be mandatory to play in elementary school to teach young kids how the real world outside of school is going to be. Giving a kid a textbook, telling them to memorize it, and lying to their face that their problems will go away with a degree and job they hate won't work forever. Lots of people have grown up achieving the academic goals set before them only to be surprised when someone cheats them out of a raise or gets HR to fire them for no reason. All the book knowledge in the world means nothing without an understanding of how to apply it.

Apologies for being pessimistic, but I think the war of public persuasion might already be lost if we are unable to speak freely online. It is the generation growing up in this nightmare that need are help the most right now.

[–]Ponderer 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

So far nobody's been able to figure out a way to do both. If it's simple enough for the public to use it (the people we are trying to reach) then there's always human-moderated control that will censor information.

I totally see where you're coming from. I want to start chatting with people on secure platforms like Element, but they keep insisting on using Telegram (which requires a phone number), or worse... Discord.

Funniest idea I've heard was launching a server into orbit around the moon, followed by launching a relay into Earth orbit, and then use Starlink dishes to receive and transmit the data. It would totally work, but nobody is going to spend the $8m to create "free-speech Internet 2.0" only to end up instantly in jail when they admit they can't shut it down.

This... could actually be a genius idea. 8 million dollars is not that much, globally speaking. And I'm not sure such a satellite could be taken down without risking Kessler syndrome...

Jokes aside, a more realistic approach would be to fix public schools.

At this point I think the only way to do this would be near-universal homeschooling.

Giving a kid a textbook, telling them to memorize it, and lying to their face that their problems will go away with a degree and job they hate won't work forever.

Well said. I agree with the rest of your prescriptions relating to schooling too. Kids need to be taught how to think, not what to think. It's cliche to say that at this point, but it's so true.

Apologies for being pessimistic, but I think the war of public persuasion might already be lost if we are unable to speak freely online.

I don't think it's over. I think there's actually a few decentralized or blockchain-based platforms already out there. We just need mass awareness and adoption of them.

[–]AnarchySpeach 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

This... could actually be a genius idea.

When I asked them, "Why the Moon? Why not use the relay itself?" He posted this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxfk5eWlbQo

In theory, a cheap $1m server in orbit could be used for 5 years before eventually burning up, but the problem is that the government can destroy it with ease. By having the main server around the moon it prevents the main system from being threatened, while allowing for other actors with the money to launch their own relays in orbit forcing all relays to be removed for the connection to be lost.

All we need is one rich person willing to take the fall. Life in prison is a lot to ask from a multi-millionaire. Even more so when you consider that 5 year operational window.