On building the good parts of cyberpunk

I wrote earlier](https://cyberspace.online/valhalla_dev/we-have-to-build-the-cool-parts-of-cyberpunk) about how we really need to build the cool parts of cyberpunk. Some people really liked the vibe of that post, and I really liked writing it, so I'm going to follow up here.

This post is a bit more rant, but I'm also going to try to focus a bit more on what is actually being done, and what should be done. Off the rip and to protect @genghis_khan : I am not advocating for illegal behavior because doing so would put this site, its admin and its userbase at risk. What I will be doing is pointing out actions that could have positive or negative consequences, actions that are not being taken now, and I will leave it up to the reader as to whether or not they should be taken.

where we are and where we are heading

Mask bans should have been an early warning of where we are heading with respect to surveillance. We should have seen the writing on the wall: mass uprisings and riots where masked individuals did Spicy Things but couldn't be caught, or couldn't be caught easily, because they were masked up lead directly to mask bans. This is the government banning a legal form of identity protection so that it can be easier for them to arrest, surveil or censor anti-government agitators.

Now, we are seeing this applied across a much wider spectrum: removal of anonymity across the web under the guise of "protecting children" and combatting child exploitation. You can't use the internet without a digital ID, because there are predators lurking in the dark recesses of... Twitter. No mention of the fact that these predators fill the halls of power in DC, and that these laws do nothing to protect kids from those predators. Just... trust us! You need to identify yourself before signing up for X or Facebook or Instagram. Keep posting as normal, though!

The chilling effect is what they want to carry forward: if you know your real name is tied to your speech online, are you as likely to say what you want? If you know your presence at a protest that might turn spicy is tied to your real name and employer, are you as likely to hold that sign up or even go?

The direction we're heading in is the full corporatization of the internet, and by extension every facet of our daily lives. You will have ads everywhere, and if you try to block them you'll be breaking ToS and will be subject to fines or removal of service. Don't want to risk that? You can go to jail for piracy. VPN then? Nope, you'll need an ID for that as well.

The direction this goes should scare you. Once your real name is tied to every activity you do, once Flock is on every street corner, once you're traceable everywhere you go and with every keystroke you make, it will be much easier to control you and your friends. The paranoia will set in - is so and so a fed? Are they watching this conversation? Am I talking to a bot? AI has already made the last question ubiquitous.

the fight

What I want to tell you is that there are many fronts to this fight. Some of them are legal - there are legal challenges to KOSA, there are legal challenges to European digital ID laws. Some of them are less legal. Data center sabotage, graffiti and property destruction, various cyber crimes. Some of them are non-technical. Raising awareness in non-technical communities that people's rights are at risk, zine campaigns, posters and flyers in public places. Some are very technical. Zero-knowledge encryption, paying for VPNs using Monero, pirating jailbroken or DRM free software.

The point is, regardless of your competence, risk calculus or technical proficiency, the fight is happening all around you.

I'm asking that you join it.

after it goes dark

If digital ID were required tomorrow, you have choices. You can leave the web behind entirely. Tough choice, but more than anything it's very unlikely you'll be able to do this entirely. Whether it is streaming services or the DMV, social media or paying for movie tickets, you'll have to get on the web eventually. You'll also be tracked just as much, maybe more, offline than you are online. There's no escaping the panopticon once it's closed.

The second option is giving your identity in. Maybe you'll do it but keep rebelling, face tied to your beliefs in reckless abandon. I've done that on some platforms and I'll probably keep doing it. The problem is, you'll always have that increasing level of paranoia. Every time a new law changes and the noose tightens, you'll feel it a little closer to your neck.

The third option is you fight. Use privacy preserving software, and get your friends and family to do so as well. I've onboarded a lot of folks to Signal. Use, write and release open source software. Build and release open source and open schematics hardware. Build agitprop networks. Do other things I can't recommend here.

More than anything, think and look around you. Get off your proverbial slop feed and look at what's happening, what problems we're facing and what problems we're hurtling toward. Find the places that you are weak that could help turn the tide. If you were thrust into a spicy protest, could you run? Forward or backward? Could you do it fast? Can you do basic first aid? If you were on a network that was being surveilled, do you have the tools available, locally, to circumvent that surveillance? Is your operating system working against you or for you in an adversarial environment? Do you know the basics of online and offline operational security? Do you know what an affinity group is? Do you know how to separate your identities online and offline?

The reason why you need to do this now, ideally yesterday, is that a lot of stuff is going to get much harder to learn and do in the coming days. You don't need to wait for the waters to start rising to learn how to swim.

Join the fight.