Re: <nettime> VW

[Jaromil <jaromil@dyne.org>]

dear Ted,

On Sun, 27 Sep 2015, t byfield wrote:

> On 27 Sep 2015, at 5:02, Jaromil wrote:
> 
> >to debate this thing as if it would be just about Volkswagen is so
> >naive! srsly. There is nothing to be learned there.
> 
> Jaromil, I think it's a bit premature to counter claims that this is
> 'just about Volkswagen,' because no one said anything like that.
> Obviously there are many ways in which this is symptomatic of broader
> structures. But Lehman Brothers and Fukushima were symptomatic as
> well, and would you really argue that 'there was nothing to be learned
> there' either? *And* hold hold up Android's OEMs cheating on
> benchmarks as a more illuminating example? I don't think so.

I believe that in 2015 and on top of all the literature we have been imbued
there is no point for us to engage blaming VW as the evil manufacturer, or take
political correctsy postures about institutional funding one or the other
takes, FWIW.

do you think the VW is any different than the hackingteam affair? its not.

HT was allegedly buying and reselling scriptkiddoz 0days available for anyone
on the oh-so-sexy "dark-market" to spray holes in the mobile phones of their
classmates, until some sharks got their rich and berlusconi-looking friends to
VC boost them to-the-moon by putting such ridicolous digital hairballs in
quarantine before selling them for thousands of euros to the booming security
industry - which is by the vast majority populated by clueless and militarized
people in uniforms collecting certifications and verifications to hide their
idiocy behind a soon-to-be-academic title in every cyber-crime 5star catered
conference they go, because sure! these kids are soooo dangerous!

this is a sketch of how the industry works today. the automotive is not
different and as I said in my previous email on HT the problem is not
hackingteam per se, as much as now the problem is not VW per se.

wake up to these news: there is an actual dark market for software like the one
VW used to counterfeit their autos
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/volkswagen-wasnt-the-only-company-rigging-emission-levels-says-expert-a6668611.html

> Relying on open-source metaphor-mantras ('Would you buy a car with the
> hood welded shut?') to analyze peculiar dynamics of the car industry

this is NOT a peculiar dynamic of the car industry. This is how the current
necrotizing capitalist regime of patents works in every sector of industrial
production, thriving wherever no open source business model is embraced, let
alone the free software ethic. There are different degrees of responsibility
for software, sure, and there could be various degrees of attention on
different parts of software, as Florian mentions, sure, but then with open
access at least we'd have infinite possibilities for researchers to choose
their independent code analysis MA project, etc. etc. instead of isolated
scandals popping up here and there. We need to switch to such a condition as
tech is becoming more pervasive and entrenched with life-critical functions,
there is no way out of this and I hope we can thrive in the open system picture
that John gives us with a numerous enough population, rather than after a total
desaster.

anyway ok, today the trend is to blame german car manufacturers, to me sounds
just like that "blaming german people for the greek crisis" fart a month ago.


ciao

-- 
Denis Roio aka Jaromil   http://Dyne.org think &do tank
  CTO and co-founder      free/open source developer
åå  6113 D89C A825 C5CE DD02 C872 73B3 5DA5 4ACB 7D10



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