THIS. Exactly this. The thing we must not forget, is that in all likelihood Hitler himself awoke believing he was doing good. The capability for self-deception is a defining characteristic of our sentience. It's scary, and we should never stop worrying that we could become equally misguided.

For this reason, I am very nervous around anyone who appoints themselves judge and jury, declaring things black and white, with an "I would never…". No offense intended, Kristoff: We've hung out, and I like you very much. I just urge you to be careful, because as soon as we assume to be the side of universal good, and stop seeking to understand how others have arrived at their positions, we are just as close and just as likely the bad guy as they are.

-J

> On May 31, 2014, at 0:55, Cody R Wilson <codywilson@???> wrote:
>
> Some villainous words. I think the view of technology as neutral often comes from the colloquial, merely instrumental understanding of the word. Techne as the means to a human end. As political technologists we might try to dig deeper and attach to more philosophical explanations. Heidegger offers that technology is a form of poetic world revealing. A reality enframing. Gestell.
>
> So we can understand Palantir technologies as enframing, but a modern one of instrumental rationality that serves those forces trying to exert internal and external control over man and nature. Totalitarian calculability. Anomalies at mass scale. Or: Find the Snowden.
>
> I spent a weekend at a ranch in the American West with these Palantir boys who all professed civil libertarianism. But their rationalizations are those you've heard before, nervous and guilty. We all knew the score.
>
>> On May 31, 2014 12:35 AM, "Kristov Atlas" <author@???> wrote:
>> On 05/31/2014 01:11 AM, Josh Walker wrote:
>> > I have no evidence that the CIA is exclusively evil
>>
>> I'm sorry to hear that. I really do think we need moral clarity in
>> spreading freedom. "This system is more efficient" is a weak form of
>> persuasion since so many are financially and emotionally invested in the
>> current system.
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