analytics

The Delusion of All-Knowingness: From the Garden to the Tower to the Cloud

THE DELUSION OF ALL KNOWINGNESS: FROM THE GARDEN TO THE TOWER TO THE CLOUD

You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.”…Gen.3: 5

With the Internet, there is no longer an excuse for not knowing… B. Krzanich, CEO Intel

The Garden: All Knowingness and the delusion of Self-Providence

It was the best of times. The accounting provided by the Jewish Torah and Christian Bible indicates that long before such a formal construct as history had been codified, Sapiens (triune-man) had brought their unique giftedness fully to bear. Having been granted dominion over the material world, their souls were constrained only by the boundaries of their uniquely animated reason, imagination, interests, and creator-ability.

It was the worst of times. In the Garden, rather than a quest for new dimensions of Creator sanctioned dominion, sapiens desire for Creator like transcendence exposed their vulnerability to treachery. The father of deception counseled that All-Knowingness was but one bite away. Sapiens bite at All-Knowingness proved both catastrophic and generationally contagious, genetically encoding desire for creatoresque Self-Providence.

The Tower: All Knowingness and the delusion of Self-Sufficiency

It was the best of times. Sapiens, ensconced in a flood-free enclave, sought a symbol to undergird their resistance to divine direction to disperse. The Tower project symbolized permanence, possibly arresting the neurosis induced by the continuing phenomena of rain; the rainbow contract offered little consolation. The Tower provided scant strategic advantage – e.g. reconnaissance of storm clouds on the distant horizon; nor did it impart tactical efficacy – e.g. training to develop critical skills that might serve them well in the future. The Tower was a monument to the first Sapiens inspired permanent city-state.

It was the worst of times. Some aspirations inspire the onset of opiate-like addiction – which disengages spiritually gestated moral authority and imperils social and personal accountability. Sapiens, no less vulnerable to spiritual deception than ages earlier, determined they’d restore their divinely diminished creator-ability through enhanced collaboration. The Tower actually evidenced a new genetic mutation of an old sapiens weakness with contagion potential: Self-Sufficiency born of counterfeit All-Knowingness.

The Cloud: All Knowingness and the delusion of Self-Supremacy

It was the best of times. The sages of Melbourne, Palo Alto, Cern, Beijing, Tel Aviv, et al, synchronized their breathing as the technology mother ship arrived and breached the zone where virtual-digital-knowledge resides. This zone is the by-product of a Sapiens induced digital big bang, which formed a network-centric-ecosystem comprised of many interoperable jurisdictions, e.g. computing, communications, storage, big data, analytics, and applications. This distant digital relative of the analog Tower is called the Cloud.

Suddenly complexity became fast, free, easy… and invisible…T. L. Friedman1

The Cloud is delivering unprecedented benefit; it has brought huge global value directly to the desktop and smartphone, and similarly enabled individuals to broadly touch the outside world – e.g. this blog. Few products, services, relationships, or destinations, are beyond its reach. Many presumptively declare the Cloud as wise, declaring it the sovereign authority of who and when. Many believe that the emergence of quantum computers and artificial intelligence will enable the Cloud to better “amplify the power of machines, the power of one, the power of many, and the power of flows1“, advancing sapiens beyond Self-Providence and Self-Sufficiency, to the portal of Self-Supremacy.

It was the worst of times. The Cloud alone adjudicates digitally articulated policy in its own interest, e.g. elevating All-Knowingness over Personal-Privacy. Destitute of social or psychological discernment, the Cloud is wholly incapable of distinguishing those of noble intent from those of nefarious intent: governments in the name of national security and criminals for personal gain, competitors for strategic advantage and businesses for commercial leverage, and terrorist for political conquest and rebels for thrills. The Cloud enables little more than nominal attributes of privacy, by way of anonymous trusted-third-parties, proxies, and vulnerable security technology, of it’s choosing. It also offers the opportunity to surrender to Big Data and Analytics agency simply by clicking “I Agree”.

The Cloud is considered to be rapidly evolving from a kluge-of-capabilities to cogent-entity status; many believe it exhibits pseudo-sentient analytic proficiency. Nevertheless, the Cloud remains highly vulnerable to nefarious human agency, which uses it to alter past and present accounts to form a new you of their choosing, e.g. profiling. Often the Cloud is positioned where principles, not binary data, ought to moderate. The Cloud now undergirds political party hostilities by furnishing weapons grade accusations and innuendo; its social network agency has abated the tactile connectedness critical to maturation of inter-personal skills. The Cloud has no master, yet it remains connected to an evergreen supply of covert and clandestine information-nutrients. Laws, standards, and threats are powerless to thwart or restrain Cloud-sourced virtual-synthetic-facts.

Disaster or Doxology:

The view from above the Cloud: While deception dons coats of many colors, pride is the color it uses to subvert well-being and foment catastrophe. All-Knowingness was the shade of pride donned by deception in the Garden and Tower, and now the Cloud. In the Garden, deception championed Self-Providence; shame and eviction are what followed. In the Tower, deception held out the illusion of Self-Sufficiency; thereafter, diminished collaborative facility was necessary to thwart a new global contagion.

The Cloud – envisioned as master-servant of sapiens quest for All-Knowingness enabled Self-Providence and Self-Sufficiency – has been besieged by powerful and unrelenting cyber espionage, subversion, interloping, piracy, mass surveillance, and profiling. As in the Garden and Tower, the Cloud opines to discordant spiritual revelation and displaced moral integrity. While direct personal control of privacy and security would substantially thwart such Cloud misadventure, true resolution requires the Words of the Creator to reside in the Hearts of Sapiens – not acts of Congress, Courts, Corporations, or Churches.

Undermining Jurisdiction of Choice, Privacy, and Oversight

UNDERMINING JURISDICTION OF CHOICE, PRIVACY, AND OVERSIGHT

 The Objectives of the few are clear; the Dangers to the many remain obfuscated

Part I of VI: Fear and Greed share a Common Convention – Acquisition

Catastrophic security breaches (subversion, surveillance, espionage, impersonation, and piracy) abound, impacting every network connected user class (portal, enterprise, small and medium business, and consumer). Yet, there are three things government and certain businesses don’t want anyone (e.g. constituents and clients) other than themselves to control jurisdiction of: choice (who), privacy (what), and oversight (consent).

The fact that choice, privacy, and oversight, share an overarching bond is not surprising. However, revelation of the allegiance between government and business that supplants this bond should be alarming. Government professes its principle interest to be national security. Business professes its principle interest to be compliance with the law.

For many, global communications networks represent a means to dispossess inefficiencies in knowledge and resource distribution. For a few, they represent a means of pervasive and covert surveillance. Recent disclosures indicate government has broadened its infiltration, while business continues to bolster profits. These fear and greed inspired missions require the few to resist the desires of the many to directly control choice, privacy, and oversight.

Part II of VI: Boundless Greed is a Patron of Bounded Fear – Collaboration

Whether covert government surveillance programs are constitutional and sufficiently proficient to discern nefarious intents is subject (bounded) to adjudication in accordance with democratically established conventions; if necessary, government actions may even be redirected. Understandably, business largely refrains from discussion of its evergreen (boundless) interests in access to client information used for commercial advantages. Both parties consider direct choice, privacy, and oversight to directly controvert their interests.

Neither government nor business is immune to the temptation to potentially know all. No matter the intensity of public protest and histrionics by business regarding government surveillance demands, their corporate behavior disavows the mutual identity of interests they allege with clients. Absent the restraint of direct choice, privacy, and oversight, all knowing has always given rise to attempts to realize more if not total control.

Part III of VI: Fear and Greed are supported by all Network Provider Classes – Facilitation

Service Providers, e.g. Internet Portals, often require users to authorize access to their personal information: email, voice mail, messages, text, tweets, searches, contacts, calendars, photos, and control of location, camera and video recorder functions. Device Providers, e.g. Smartphones and Tablets, and Mobile O/S Providers, are capable of covertly survieiling device resident user data, e.g. fingerprint and pass code files, no matter their protest to the contrary. Resource Providers, e.g. data centers, who store, and process multiple users information, enable broad one-stop attack opportunities. Communications Service Providers, e.g. Cable and Telecos, are meta data treasure troves for interlopers.

Part IV of VI: Fear and Greed Champion Inferior Security Technology – Equivocation

Service and Resource Providers have appointed themselves as trusted-third-parties, to protect client data from others while preserving access for themselves; such access is essentially unrelated to user security. However, access to such information is extremely valuable to Big Data and Analytics enterprises, both are new high margin network centric growth businesses. New Disintermediation services, e.g. transaction providers who require access to users personal credit card and banking information, are actually trusted-third-parties, who also evidence Big Data and Analytics enterprise potential.

Device (OEM) have limited influence regarding security. Mobile O/S Providers are actually the self-appointed trusted-third-parties, who determine with what apps and which service providers privately purchased devices may engage, and what royalty must be paid. This control is only marginally related to user security, but it is central to the gatekeeper strategy of a powerful Mobile Architecture Oligopoly.

It is alleged that Government, to include agencies charged to act as trusted-third-parties of Standards in the public’s interest, conspired to diminish the effectiveness of certain security technology and products. Further, well-known trusted-third-party Communications Service Providers substantially facilitate government’s Surveillance initiatives.

Part V of VI: How to Demystify Fear and Uncloak Greed – Disclosure and Education

While there are a number of impediments to direct control of choice (who), privacy (what), and oversight (consent), several are formidable. Resistance by government and business (inspired by fear and greed) are empowered by strategic denial and tactical silence. User indifference is sustained by lack of appreciation for potentially catastrophic but unintended consequences. Fear and greed can only be demystified and uncloaked by judicious disclosure and sober education. The fourth estate has failed unequivocally in this regard.

Part VI of VI: How to Thwart Fear and Throttle Greed – Technology and Determination

Network Centric tasks and sessions are currently supported by: a Digital Ecosystem e.g. all user classes, infrastructure, devices, apps, and data, and a Digital Monoculture comprised of integrated processes that preserve resource interoperability. Digital Jurisdiction e.g. direct control of choice, privacy, and oversight, requires a security technology breakthrough.

The rapidly advancing capabilities of friends and foe to surveil – where you’ve been and with whom, what you saw, what you said, what you did – and to impersonate you, has inspired ample determination across all user classes: portal, enterprise, small-medium business, and consumers. Insufficiently informed, resistance remains unfocused and easily rebuffed.

 Only User Controlled Jurisdiction can overcome Acquisition, Collaboration, Facilitation, and Equivocation