The Ethics of digital Direct Action, By Gabriella Coleman

The Ethics of digital Direct Action, By Gabriella Coleman

What is your interpretation of the Guy Fawkes mask being worn by the Anonymous participant holding a sign that states "Free Bradley Manning"? (Bradley Edward Manning is a United States Army soldier who was arrested in May 2010 in Iraq on suspicion of having passed classified material to the whistle blower website WikiLeaks

Steven Chabinsky from the FBI stated, in response to a justification for the crackdown, "We want to send a message that chaos on the internet is unacceptable". Do you think this is a practical statement? Why so/not?

Do you think the group Anonymous provides transparency within out system or creates nothing more than chaos? They don;t have a clearly defined mission, but they have exposed head turning information.

Our Weirdness if Free By Gabriella Coleman

Our Weirdness if Free

By Gabriella Coleman

With regards to the ethics around cyber hacking, do you think it’s justified that the Anonymous group, or any other hacker group, reveals confidential information about illegal or immoral actions other people are doing? In other words, is preforming an illegal action via hacking to reveal illegal actions elsewhere, ok?

Will the group Anonymous centime to exist in the future? As stated in Cyberdeterence and Cyber War by Libicki, cyber space will only become more secure as hacking routes are unavailable. Do you think they will find a way regardless, based on the fact that cyberspace is not a physical place, but indeed an abstract place with (what seems like) endless possibilities?

If lulz-oriented actions do somehow, “pull the carpet from under us” (with regards to destroying the Internet without warning), what would happen? Chaos would erupt, but what would that mean for the economy, national security, and every-day life? 

Cyberdeterrance and Cyber War, By Martin C. Libicki

Cyberdeterrance and Cyber War

By Martin C. Libicki

“As systems become more hardened, societies become less vulnerable and are likely to become more, rather than less, resistant to further coercion”. With this, do you think there will be a day that cyber attacks will be non-existent? If the system is that robust, will we rely on it even further in the future?

As Professor Hopkins stated in class, a lot of our lives revolve around the Internet; bank accounts, personal documents, confidential information. As the passage suggests, we have by no means established a completely secure system. What would happen to society if, instead of terrorist attacks, there were a cyber attack that targeted the public’s, say, bank accounts and confidential information?

Ethically, what is your view on cyber war? How does it compare to war involving citizens, risking their lives? Will cyber war replace human-defensive tactics? 

Questions with Harper Nelson

Early in his career, Vanevar Bush developed close links to universities such as Harvard and Berkley. Would the development of the ARPANET cease to exist without Bush's close links to these institutions?

My Response: I do not think the development of ARPNET would cease to exist if Vanevar Bush did not develop the links with the universities. As the Universities provided resources and a means of development V Bush utilized, I believe that an individual or another institution would have provided these resources eventually. ARPNET could have altered slightly as the means of production was different, but would have been developed regardless, I believe.

In the beginning, why do you suppose that industrial companies showed little interest in the ARPANET?

My Response: I think that the Industrial companies showed little interest in ARPNET because they thought it was a fallacy. This technology never existed before, and the idea backing ARPNET was far fetched. I am sure that developments of the same scale may have failed previous to this project, which may promote skepticism among companies investing a lot of capital.

What do you think the world would be like without the invention of the world-wide-web? In other worlds, how would we live our daily lives if the web wasn't there?

My Response: Daily life would not be the same if the world-wide-web were not developed. Looking at the way we live our lives, realize how integrated we are with the web. How much time do you spend on the web? We invest a good portion of our lives into this development, of which time would use elsewhere without the Web. Social media would be completely different, if not non-existent. Our capability to share information would be much slower, our technology would be considerably different, and our overall lives would be much different. We would still be shuffling though reference cards in the library and talking to people face-to-face, to put it into perspective. 

O’Regan, G., Chapter 6- The internet Revolution. In a Brief History of Computing

O’Regan, G., Chapter 6- The internet Revolution. In a Brief History of Computing

For those computer scientists mentioned (6.2), do you think their dreams were as extensive as our networks of computers are now? What makes you think so?

If the government did not release development of the Internet into the public’s hands, do you think there would be as equivalent to the Internet we use now? Based on the reading (basic elements), how do you think it would differ if you think so?

(Choose either one) The invention of the worldwide web was announced in 1991. It has been roughly 21 years since that announcement, what do you think could happen in the next 21 years with the Internet?

(Choose either one)“The web is a space and not a physical thing”. Based on this fact, what other ‘things’ could become a space, rather a physical thing?