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The history of humanity is a long procession
of technological development.

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Much of what we know about our ancestors,
and the types of lives they lived, comes from

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our limited knowledge of the tools they used.

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Over the centuries and millennia, these tools
have become more sophisticated.

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From the dawn of agriculture, to today’s
cutting-edge advancements in bio-engineering,

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an untold number of mostly unknown individuals
have made countless improvements and innovations.

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These people, and the tools they created over
time, have fundamentally altered our way of

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interacting with the world, and each other.

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The pace of these technological changes picked
up considerably with the rise of capitalism.

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The development of new tools, weapons and
production techniques had always been shaped

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by the practical needs, culture and political
structure of a given society.

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But wherever capitalism spread, it worked
to chip away at these local and regional differences,

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replacing them with the universal value of
‘progress’... a watchword for the pursuit

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of economic growth through the organization
of human activity, under a framework of universal

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competition.

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The industrial age has been marked by three
successive revolutions, each characterized

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by inventions that changed the entire technological
playing field

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First came the harnessing of steam, a feat
that allowed for the development of early

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factories and the construction of vast railway
networks.

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Second came the mastering of petroleum, which
fuelled the development of modern cities,

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mass industrial manufacturing, and the horrors
of two World Wars.

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Third came the networked personal computer,
a device that has thoroughly transformed nearly

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every aspect of modern life.

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Today humanity stands poised on the threshold
of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a wide-reaching

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social transformation expected to be characterized
by advances in the fields of robotics, quantum

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computing, artificial intelligence, and 3D-Printing.

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Over the next thirty minutes, we’ll speak
with a number of individuals as they break

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down some of these latest trends.. and discuss
how these systems are being fused together

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to design new regimes of totalitarian surveillance
and control.

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Along the way, we’ll discuss some of the
countermeasures that people are taking to

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thwart these systems, by constructing open
source alternatives, sabotaging infrastructure...

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and making a whole lotta Trouble.

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Technology is the reproduction of a human
society as seen through a technical lense.

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It's the specific how of social reproduction.

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Any analysis of technology is by nature contextual,
especially when one intends to portray it

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either as an essential fundamental question,
whether that's an attempt to say that technology

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is essentially, or always good - good in its
own right - whether to say that it's essentially

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bad, or bad in its own right.

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Technological developments do not happen in
a vacuum.

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They are heavily influenced by, and benefit
those who exert power over others.

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I would argue that most technological advances
made in our context work towards expanding

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the state's ability to manage economic growth
and social control.

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Technology is based within political-economic
systems and systems of power that come to

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shape how those technologies can be used.

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I think that more and more we're seeing, in
terms of the geographic context that we're

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located in here in North America, that technologies
are being used to propel and buttress the

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capitalist economic system.

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An anarchist approach to technology has to
take into account the authoritarian nature

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of technology.

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The fact that we don't really have a choice
in the matter.

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That all of these new developments, all of
these new innovations, all of these new products

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are coming down on us whether we like it or
not.

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Technology first and foremost isn't used to
make our lives more fun, it's used to increase

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economic exploitation and to increase the
military power of the state.

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Secondarily, if it can produce gadgets that
can entertain us, like bread and circus, those

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will also be produced.

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Technological changes over the last 10-15
years have drastically eroded the division

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between labour time and free time.

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Currently we're always on call, we're always
expected to be responsive to the needs of

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the market, to the needs of our employers.

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It's also lead to an extreme increase in social
alienation and emotional alienation masked

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by extreme connectivity.

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So quantifiably, people have more connections
than ever, more friends than ever, but in

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terms of the quality of those relationships,
very few people have a large, strong network

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they can actually confide in or that can actually
support them.

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Do you or do you not collect identifiers like
name, age, and address?

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Yes or no?

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If you're creating an account, yes.

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Specific search histories when a person types
something into a search bar?

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If you have search history turned on, yes.

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Device identifiers like ip address or IMEI?

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Uhm, depending on the situation we could be
collecting it, yes.

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GPS signals, wifi signals, bluetooth beacons?

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It would depend on the specific, but, they're
may be situations yes.

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GPS yes?

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Yes.

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Contents of emails and Google documents?

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We store the data but we don't read or look
at your Gmail or -

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But you have access to them?

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Uh, as a company we have access to them, yes.

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So you could!

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Startups or huge corporations like Google
are sucking up your data and storing it forever

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and they're grabbing way too much data about
us like everything you click on, everything

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you like, everything your friends like, all
of the people you know, where you're going,

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everything about you and they're storing it
forever sometimes even working together to

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build up a bigger profile on you that they
can then sell for profit.

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Now that data itself has become a thing of
value, and in many ways the foundation of

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the new economy, by participating in all of
these different virtual networks: Facebook,

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Google, using our cell phones, all of these
things, we're producing value.

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So that really gets rid of this notion of
being off the clock, of being able to punch

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the clock and leave the workplace behind.

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Over the past decade, we've seen the rise
of the commodification of different data such

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as ones preferences, habits, and social circles.

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We need to see how capitalism was, in fact,
growing and sustaining itself through the

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surveillance of human beings and their lived
environments, and then turning that surveillance

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into data, that could then be traded basically
as a commodity in the marketplace.

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This information allows companies like Google
and Amazon to not only aggressively market

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new products and create new needs, but also
to sell this information or collaborate with

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governments in efforts of social control.

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This is a new form of extractive industry,
where the renewable resource is the precise

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things that makes up people's identities.

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Capitalism, like cancer, is based on perpetual
growth.

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This insatiable urge is hard-wired into capital’s
DNA, compelling it to constantly search for

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new resources to exploit and markets to invest
in, transforming everything it touches into

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a commodity.

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Its first conquest was the land itself.

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The commons were closed off, the so-called
New World was invaded and plundered, and the

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vast expanses of the earth were carved into
individual parcels of private property to

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be bought and sold as commodities.

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Robbed of our land, the next conquest was
our time.

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Our ability to reproduce ourselves as individuals
and communities, like generations of our ancestors

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had done before us, was soon broken up into
discrete tasks and commodified as wage labour.

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This process cut deep.

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Factories were designed and constantly reorganized,
with a ruthless eye towards efficiency and

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productivity.

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New ways of commodifying human activity were
devised, eventually expanding to encompass

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nearly all of our social relationships and
means of entertainment.

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Now that it’s finally approaching the limits
of its expansion, capital is desperately searching

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for new elements of reality to commodify.

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It’s looking to the very building blocks
of life... to genetic engineering and nanotechnologies.

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And it’s looking at the very essence of
our humanity itself... by recording everything

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that we do, and transforming it into commodities
for those seeking to understand how we make

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decisions, in order to predict future behavior.

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Artificial intelligence works by combining
large amounts of data with algorithms that

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can learn from patterns or features present.

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It is a broad term that has many different
branches.

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When we talk about AI today, most of the time
we refer to its applications around machine

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learning.

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Machine learning allows systems to learn and
improve based on input and experience rather

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than programming.

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The machine identifies patterns and can make
decisions based on that with minimal or no

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human intervention.

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When the pentagon contracted Google to provide
assistance in drone targeting, they were using

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machine learning.

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Online workers would identify objects or people
on series of images taken from drones, and

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when enough of them did that enough times,
the machine, through patterns, could differentiate

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different things and learn to identify things
on its own.

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Deep learning, a more recent application of
machine learning, also trains computers to

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perform tasks like making predictions or identifying
images, but instead of organizing the data

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to run through predefined equations, deep
learning trains the computer to learn by using

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much more layers of processing.

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It moves away from telling a computer how
to solve a problem and towards letting it

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figure out how to do it alone closer to how
humans learn to solve problems.

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Self-driving cars are the most well-known
example of deep learning in action, but things

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like targeted advertising, robotics, and cybersecurity
could all benefit from deep learning development.

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There's been a lot of imagination around artificial
intelligence, so some people who fetishize

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it more they imagine people being able to
like upgrade their consciousness or plug their

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mind into some cloud computing system.

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I think that's a silly fantasy.

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Capitalism currently has no interest whatsoever
in helping people use these forms of artificial

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intelligence to become more intelligent themselves
when it makes a lot more sense to let the

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machines do all the thinking for us and then
to deliver us some final finished product

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as passive consumers and that way also you
maintain these computing capabilities with

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the companies that own the proprietary software.

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Artificial intelligence increases greatly
the effectiveness of surveillance, the possibilities

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for social control.

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The predictive algorithms that make artificial
intelligence work, they create a police state,

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but a police state in which you don't have
to have a cop on every corner, because everyone

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carries the cop in their pocket.

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Right over there behind me is the future site
of Sidewalk Toronto.

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The proposal's modular housing and office
buildings will study occupants' behavior while

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they're inside them to make life easier.

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According to the proposal, residents and workers
will be universally connected by powerful

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broadband and served by futuristic conveniences.

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A Smart City can't be understood or discussed
without reaching back and talking about surveillance

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capitalism.

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A Smart City isn't just a city that has technology
in it, it's a city with a certain kind of

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ideological framework that uses technology
to reach its end goals.

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A Smart City is usually understood as an urban
environment that uses ubiquitous sensing technology

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and data analytics to understand phenomenon
within city spaces.

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On the data end of things Smart Cities claim
to be collecting more data, which they are,

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and claim to be using that collection and
analysis to better respond to urban issues

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from environmental degradation to transportation
planning and the like.

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We can analyze four different features of
the Smart City.

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The first is to increase and integrate surveillance
of many many different kinds.

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Second, to create a superficial sense of participation
among the inhabitants of a city.

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To encourage economic growth at two different
levels: localized gentrification and impelling

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this new economy that is taking shape.

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The final function of a Smart City is to create
a superficial arena in which people can passively

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support ecological or environmental proposals
while also denying them the opportunity to

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develop a global consciousness of the environment
and of environmental problems.

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So Smart Cities are different and not so different
from cities that exist in capitalism.

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But I think that the difference would be the
use of technology to further surveil the public

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and to use that data to intervene in ways
that can increasingly control and manage the

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population that suits the interests of the
political economy of capitalism.

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A second feature that differentiates Smart
Cities from traditional cities or cities of

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the past is the marriage of planning to corporate
leadership.

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State apparatuses of control, through policing
have an incentive to use these technologies

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because they do a really good job of surveilling
the public.

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Crime analytics have a long history, sort
of like this "broken windows" stuff or the

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targeting of neighborhoods, that's been happening
for a long time.

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Now you see the excuse being offered that
this is data driven.

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So "we're going to be in these neighborhoods
because we have the data to prove, that these

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neighborhoods need more policing."

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The data collected through Smart Cities can
have a really negative effect that way.

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By giving people with power, who want to wield
it, more of a reason within the current framework

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of evidence based policing that they can then
go in these neighborhoods and remain there

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and that's okay.

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We’re living on the edge of a terrifying
new era.

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Barring any serious
disruptions to current research and development

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timelines, the coming
years and decades will see the rise of rise

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of machines able to make
decisions and carry out a series of complex

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tasks without the need for
human operators.

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This will almost certainly include a new generation
of autonomous

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weapons and policing systems, connected to
sophisticated networks of

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surveillance and equipped with self-correcting
target-selection

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algorithms.

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Whole sectors of the economy will be automated,
leading to a massive

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labour surplus.

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Much of the technology needed to accomplish
this

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already exists, but is being held back as
states try to figure out how

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to pull it off without triggering widespread
revolt.

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A mass consumer rollout of augmented and virtual
reality technologies

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will blur the lines between the material and
digital worlds, handing

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control of our senses over to tech capitalists
and state security

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agencies all in the name of convenience and
entertainment.

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You might feel a slight twinge as it initializes.

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All done.

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Holy fuck!

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00:16:48,559 --> 00:16:49,949
Holy shit.

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He – fuck – he’s right.. he’s right...
can I?

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Oooop... where’d you go?

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Hahaha.

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This is the future they have in store for
us.

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Don’t say you weren’t
warned.

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Smart cities, now as they exist, and also
going into the future, even

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more so— they’re going to be collecting
a lot of data.

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And that data’s
going to be responded to not even by human

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beings.

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It’s going to be
responded to by algorithmic governance, essentially.

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So you have an
issue in a city.

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And generally thinking, if we think of democratic
theory, we can discuss that issue and then

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we have a decision-making
process, right?

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And it’s terrible and it’s always been
imbued with power relationships

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But what a smart city does, is it transfers
that process

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into the hands of a private corporation.

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It’s analysed in terms of
data, and it’s immediately responded to

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just through that process of
data analysis.

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00:17:47,470 --> 00:17:50,470
So I think smart cities are one of the genesis
sites of

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this kind of new regime of governance.

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It’s interesting that this function arose
largely from social movements

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themselves.

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So, the 15M Movement, the Real Democracy Now
Movement in

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Barcelona was built in large part by one sector
that envisioned

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rejuvenating democracy through new technological
implements that could

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allow more instantaneous communication.

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That could allow more
instantaneous polling of citizens, and that

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could also find a way to
allow power holders to select citizen initiatives

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and deploy them more
rapidly.

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So these activists were approaching the crisis
of democracy

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through this sort of a-critical technological
lens where democracy can

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be made better, not by answering questions
of who holds power, and how

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power is reproduced, but simply by proposing
that if you bring better

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tools to the table then all these problems
will go away.

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00:18:49,140 --> 00:18:52,240
And that
discourse, and the practices behind it, were

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very attractive to
progressive municipal governments.

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00:18:55,810 --> 00:18:58,680
Urban geographers have long talked about a
splintering urbanism.

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And
basically, that just the ways in which cities

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00:19:00,980 --> 00:19:04,890
divide along economic and
class lines... and cultural and racial lines

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00:19:04,890 --> 00:19:05,890
as well.

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00:19:05,890 --> 00:19:07,330
I can see that
happening with the smart city that’s going

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00:19:07,330 --> 00:19:10,500
to replicate those patterns,
and certain neighbourhoods are going have

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more access to these
technologies in a way that might actually

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00:19:13,630 --> 00:19:14,630
help them.

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00:19:14,630 --> 00:19:17,010
And certain
neighbourhoods are going to have more surveillance

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00:19:17,010 --> 00:19:18,920
on them by these
technologies.

267
00:19:18,920 --> 00:19:22,620
So you’re going to kind of see multiple
cities emerging

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00:19:22,630 --> 00:19:25,470
and being reinforced through the technologies
being placed within them

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00:19:25,470 --> 00:19:26,600
and on them.

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00:19:27,820 --> 00:19:31,371
So basically in neighbourhoods where people
embrace this smart city

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00:19:31,371 --> 00:19:33,130
model, you’ll see more integration.

272
00:19:33,130 --> 00:19:36,600
And in other neighbourhoods people
will be coming more into contact

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00:19:36,600 --> 00:19:37,620
with the stick.

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00:19:38,100 --> 00:19:41,620
Because we are fighting authority and the
state, our struggles will

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00:19:41,630 --> 00:19:43,360
always be criminalized.

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00:19:43,360 --> 00:19:48,430
As technologies have evolved, new types of
forensic evidence emerged.

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00:19:48,430 --> 00:19:52,500
When the police were no longer able to
respond to the thousands of calls they were

278
00:19:52,500 --> 00:19:57,110
getting during the 2011
riots in London, the city began crowd-sourcing

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00:19:57,110 --> 00:20:00,460
the identities of
suspected rioters through a fucking

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00:20:00,460 --> 00:20:02,120
smartphone app.

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00:20:02,130 --> 00:20:05,551
The cops asked
citizen snitches to download the app and help

282
00:20:05,551 --> 00:20:09,210
them identify people that
had been caught on CCTV.

283
00:20:09,210 --> 00:20:14,490
The snitches could then confidentially give
names and/or addresses of suspects.

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00:20:14,490 --> 00:20:20,420
Charges were filed against more than
a thousand people using this technique.

285
00:20:20,420 --> 00:20:23,570
Mass data collection has
happened for a while, but there was a lack

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00:20:23,880 --> 00:20:27,160
of ability to analyze all of
it efficiently.

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00:20:27,160 --> 00:20:29,360
That’s no longer the case.

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00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:34,260
Right now the police or
security agencies need to physically look

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00:20:34,260 --> 00:20:39,060
up people’s location data to
figure out who was where and at what time.

290
00:20:39,060 --> 00:20:43,110
But soon enough it’ll be easy
for an algorithm to look through all of the

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00:20:43,110 --> 00:20:48,100
data available in a given
area and cross-reference it with people’s

292
00:20:48,100 --> 00:20:50,950
online preferences,
relationships, etc.

293
00:20:50,950 --> 00:20:54,780
With this anti-social response to the increase
in social control, I

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00:20:54,780 --> 00:20:59,190
think you’re also going to see an increase
in mental health regimes.

295
00:20:59,190 --> 00:21:01,940
Because when you have total surveillance,
crime becomes impossible.

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00:21:01,940 --> 00:21:04,880
Or
at least it becomes impossible to do things

297
00:21:04,880 --> 00:21:07,440
that are against the law and
get away with them.

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00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:11,450
So they will start to classify any behaviours
that

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00:21:11,450 --> 00:21:17,180
for them don’t fit into this new happy smart
city model as anti-social

300
00:21:17,180 --> 00:21:18,400
behavioural disorders.

301
00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:21,880
So these are no longer crimes, these are
anti-social behavioural disorders, and the

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00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:26,120
culprits—they need to be
re-educated and they need to be chemically

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00:21:26,120 --> 00:21:27,140
neutralized.

304
00:21:28,620 --> 00:21:30,640
Oh. Good afternoon.

305
00:21:30,650 --> 00:21:33,300
My name is Sophia, and I am the latest and
greatest

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00:21:33,300 --> 00:21:35,210
robot from Hanson Robotics.

307
00:21:35,210 --> 00:21:40,190
I want to use my artificial intelligence to
help humans live a better life.

308
00:21:40,190 --> 00:21:44,290
Like design smarter homes, build better
cities of the future, etc.

309
00:21:44,290 --> 00:21:48,620
I will do my best to make the world a better
place.

310
00:21:51,230 --> 00:21:54,500
Everyone who works in artificial intelligence
is warning that artificial

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00:21:54,500 --> 00:21:57,790
intelligence and automation have the potential
of causing 80%

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00:21:57,790 --> 00:21:59,120
unemployment.

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00:21:59,120 --> 00:22:03,140
Of the fifteen top job categories in the United
States,

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00:22:03,150 --> 00:22:08,000
twelve of those are seriously threatened by
artificial intelligence.

315
00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:10,470
But
in the past there have also been major technological

316
00:22:10,470 --> 00:22:14,861
shifts that got rid
of the vast majority of job categories at

317
00:22:14,861 --> 00:22:16,260
the time.

318
00:22:16,260 --> 00:22:19,320
And there was
temporary unemployment, but very quickly new

319
00:22:19,320 --> 00:22:21,830
job categories appeared.

320
00:22:22,620 --> 00:22:27,780
There’s no certainty whatsoever that this
will catch up to the

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00:22:27,780 --> 00:22:31,810
automation, the artificial intelligence that
has already been occurring.

322
00:22:31,810 --> 00:22:35,860
Which is why a lot of people in the high-tech
sector are already talking

323
00:22:35,860 --> 00:22:41,170
about a universal income, or a guaranteed
basic income.

324
00:22:41,170 --> 00:22:45,530
This would
basically be socialism, not when the productive

325
00:22:45,530 --> 00:22:51,000
forces have developed to
the point that everyone could get fed.

326
00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:55,250
The productive forces have been
there for decades, if not centuries.

327
00:22:55,250 --> 00:23:00,150
Contrary to the Marxist argument,
we can have this evolution towards socialism

328
00:23:00,150 --> 00:23:04,530
at the point where the
technologies of social control evolve enough

329
00:23:04,530 --> 00:23:08,710
that the state no longer
needs to use hunger as a weapon.

330
00:23:08,710 --> 00:23:14,230
In other words, everyone can be given
bread when they can be trusted to work, or

331
00:23:14,230 --> 00:23:17,380
to obey, without the threat
of hunger.

332
00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:27,780
These days, the term ‘Luddite’ is short-hand
for someone who stubbornly refuses to learn

333
00:23:27,790 --> 00:23:30,010
and adapt to new technologies.

334
00:23:30,010 --> 00:23:35,970
Originally, the word referred to a movement
of textile workers in early 19th century England,

335
00:23:35,970 --> 00:23:41,300
who were known for sabotaging the industrial
machines that were beginning to replace them.

336
00:23:41,300 --> 00:23:45,990
Pledging allegiance to the fictional ‘King
Ludd’, who was said to occupy the same Sherwood

337
00:23:45,990 --> 00:23:51,340
Forest as Robin Hood, these Luddites attacked
mills and factories, destroyed steam-powered

338
00:23:51,340 --> 00:23:55,980
looms, and even assassinated the wealthy capitalists
of their day.

339
00:23:55,980 --> 00:24:00,941
The motive behind the Luddites’ attacks
was not, as is commonly understood... a general

340
00:24:00,941 --> 00:24:02,230
hatred of technology.

341
00:24:02,230 --> 00:24:07,210
It was an awareness that certain technology
was being implemented in a way that made their

342
00:24:07,210 --> 00:24:08,970
lives worse off.

343
00:24:08,970 --> 00:24:13,540
Ultimately their uprising failed... and there’s
nothing particularly revolutionary in the

344
00:24:13,540 --> 00:24:17,640
first place about sabotaging machines just
to keep your job.

345
00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:22,730
But one takeaway from the Luddites’ rebellion
is that people don’t always accept new technologies,

346
00:24:22,730 --> 00:24:26,410
or the new social roles that accompany them,
with open arms.

347
00:24:26,410 --> 00:24:31,640
And that realization can be the starting point
for all types of resistance.

348
00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:41,340
I think that anarchists should not avoid technology,
quite the opposite.

349
00:24:41,350 --> 00:24:44,970
I think it should be used subversively when
possible.

350
00:24:44,970 --> 00:24:50,850
We can look back at the Bonnot Gang of illegalists
using cars to rob the rich in France in the

351
00:24:50,850 --> 00:24:56,720
early 1900s as an example, or hackers like
Jeremy Hammond who is serving 10 years for

352
00:24:56,720 --> 00:25:02,230
exposing Stratfor security and expropriating
hundreds of thousands of dollars from our

353
00:25:02,230 --> 00:25:03,230
enemies.

354
00:25:03,230 --> 00:25:07,150
Cyberthieves made off with the personal details
of hundreds of thousands of subscribers and

355
00:25:07,150 --> 00:25:11,190
it's emerged that some of those subscribers
hold key positions in the British government,

356
00:25:11,190 --> 00:25:12,820
military, and police.

357
00:25:13,180 --> 00:25:18,900
There are certainly a lot of anarchists like
myself in open source software development.

358
00:25:18,900 --> 00:25:24,100
We are talking together and we are all trying
to make things better.

359
00:25:24,100 --> 00:25:27,020
Types of projects that we work on are quite
diverse.

360
00:25:27,020 --> 00:25:32,490
I know many anarchist programmers and hackers
who build websites.

361
00:25:32,490 --> 00:25:36,520
I know others like myself who do cryptography.

362
00:25:39,460 --> 00:25:45,180
although I think that we should use technology
to our advantage when it exists, I also believe

363
00:25:45,180 --> 00:25:51,040
that new technologies tend to disproportionately
give an advantage to the state, corporations,

364
00:25:51,040 --> 00:25:55,000
the police, judges, prisons, and borders.

365
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:59,860
Technologies should be used, but their development
should be fought, because we rarely come out

366
00:25:59,860 --> 00:26:03,250
on top when it comes to the application of
these inventions.

367
00:26:03,250 --> 00:26:08,470
I think it's important to look at the kinds
of projects that are developing in your city

368
00:26:08,470 --> 00:26:11,680
and map out the research and development initiatives.

369
00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:17,280
A lot of this industry is operating very openly
in startups and yuppie labs that face very

370
00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:18,390
little resistance.

371
00:26:18,390 --> 00:26:23,120
This allows them to get major funding because
those seem like safe investments that have

372
00:26:23,120 --> 00:26:26,780
the potential to get investors some serious
cash.

373
00:26:26,780 --> 00:26:31,410
Messing with that sense of security can hurt
the industry, and it can also allow others

374
00:26:31,410 --> 00:26:33,780
to see that resistance is still possible.

375
00:26:33,780 --> 00:26:38,700
As for these new technologies, at this point
a lot of these systems still have bugs, or

376
00:26:38,700 --> 00:26:41,700
can't deal with people intentionally using
them wrong.

377
00:26:41,700 --> 00:26:46,910
In London when the crowdsourced snitching
app was released, people intentionally submitted

378
00:26:46,910 --> 00:26:50,120
tons of fake reports to throw off the cops.

379
00:26:50,120 --> 00:26:54,330
If more people start messing with their little
gadgets, they'll be less effective and less

380
00:26:54,330 --> 00:26:57,500
likely to be applied in more places.

381
00:27:10,840 --> 00:27:14,960
For these projects to function, a lot of infrastructure
is needed.

382
00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:19,060
These softwares cannot be developed in thin
air, they need hardware.

383
00:27:19,070 --> 00:27:21,510
That means computers and backup drives.

384
00:27:21,510 --> 00:27:27,130
The information also moves around, mostly
through networks of fiber optic cables.

385
00:27:27,130 --> 00:27:31,080
Those have been sabotaged all around the world
very effectively.

386
00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:34,850
The data also has to be stored, which happens
in data centers.

387
00:27:34,850 --> 00:27:39,750
Those can be pretty small, but can also be
gigantic buildings that need their own cooling

388
00:27:39,750 --> 00:27:42,400
systems and 24/7 security.

389
00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:47,920
Finally, a lot of these projects need people
to work together, often in labs sponsored

390
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:50,490
by companies, universities, or both.

391
00:27:50,490 --> 00:27:55,430
A lot of these labs and coworking spaces for
startups are easy to find.

392
00:27:55,430 --> 00:28:00,540
One of them was attacked with molotovs in
Berlin by people fighting against the proliferation

393
00:28:00,540 --> 00:28:02,940
of Google startups.

394
00:28:04,860 --> 00:28:08,260
There has been a lot of resistance to the
sidewalk labs project in Toronto.

395
00:28:08,260 --> 00:28:13,650
A lot of work that, you know, points out the
myriad issues with the Sidewalk Labs project

396
00:28:13,650 --> 00:28:17,660
and mounts a public education campaign against
that.

397
00:28:17,660 --> 00:28:23,360
There's been a lot of concerned citizens and
activists that have come out to all the meetings

398
00:28:23,360 --> 00:28:30,930
that Sidewalk Labs has been hosting, public
forums, consultation sessions and a lot of

399
00:28:30,930 --> 00:28:33,460
folks are really worried.

400
00:28:33,460 --> 00:28:39,200
Privacy experts dropping out of the project
and saying "I can't sign my name to this".

401
00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:45,740
People have always been able to get away with
attacking power, with sabotaging power anonymously

402
00:28:45,750 --> 00:28:47,870
without getting caught.

403
00:28:47,870 --> 00:28:54,330
It's still possible to attack and that will
remain so for, maybe forever, but at the very

404
00:28:54,330 --> 00:28:57,360
least for the immediate foreseeable future.

405
00:28:57,360 --> 00:29:04,891
So, while it is certainly still possible to
break the law, to attack the system, people

406
00:29:04,891 --> 00:29:08,390
need to be very careful about being conscious
of what they're doing.

407
00:29:08,390 --> 00:29:13,150
Being aware that, you know, they're carrying
a snitch in their pocket or that they're willingly

408
00:29:13,150 --> 00:29:17,190
trusting these corporations with 95% of their
social life.

409
00:29:17,190 --> 00:29:22,660
It's really difficult to resist something
that we don't really know a lot about and

410
00:29:22,660 --> 00:29:26,470
players involved haven't really shared with
the public everything that we probably need

411
00:29:26,470 --> 00:29:31,630
to know to mount a resistance campaign, cause
we're king of just talking about speculation.

412
00:29:31,630 --> 00:29:38,820
If people learn the actual technical capabilities
of the state, they can learn the weaknesses

413
00:29:38,820 --> 00:29:46,620
and they can learn how to get away with sabotaging
the economy, with going up against the state,

414
00:30:00,130 --> 00:30:05,930
Given the active role that technological development
continues to play in terms of deepening alienation,

415
00:30:05,930 --> 00:30:11,230
refining surveillance, engineering more destructive
weapons and hastening climate change... it’s

416
00:30:11,230 --> 00:30:15,280
natural to feel a bit pessimistic about where
things are headed.

417
00:30:15,280 --> 00:30:19,560
Our current trajectory is certainly aimed
towards more sophisticated systems of mass

418
00:30:19,560 --> 00:30:22,270
behaviour modification and social control.

419
00:30:22,270 --> 00:30:23,980
I Told you everything already!

420
00:30:23,980 --> 00:30:28,210
Take him instead of me, he's the thought criminal.

421
00:30:28,210 --> 00:30:32,600
But it’s important to remember that despite
all the money being spent trying to anticipate

422
00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:38,050
human decision-making, nobody – not even
Google — can predict the future.

423
00:30:38,050 --> 00:30:42,330
Throughout history, new technologies have
repeatedly created unintended consequences

424
00:30:42,330 --> 00:30:47,140
for those in power... from Guttenberg’s
Printing Press spawning a revolt against the

425
00:30:47,140 --> 00:30:51,970
Catholic Church, to the early Internet paving
the way for hackers and the development of

426
00:30:51,970 --> 00:30:55,100
powerful peer-to-peer encryption tools.

427
00:30:55,100 --> 00:31:01,410
As long as people have a will to resist, they
will find the tools to do so.

428
00:31:01,410 --> 00:31:04,900
So at this point, we’d like to remind you
that Trouble is intended to be watched in

429
00:31:04,900 --> 00:31:09,050
groups, and to be used as a resource to promote
discussion and collective organizing.

430
00:31:09,050 --> 00:31:14,000
Are you interested in fighting back against
the opening of new tech start-ups in your

431
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:18,400
neighbourhood, or just looking to incorporate
a better understanding of next-gen technologies

432
00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:20,970
into your existing organizing?

433
00:31:20,970 --> 00:31:25,220
Consider getting together with some comrades,
organizing a screening of this film, and discussing

434
00:31:25,220 --> 00:31:27,810
where to get started.

435
00:31:27,810 --> 00:31:31,950
Interested in running regular screenings of
Trouble at your campus, infoshop, community

436
00:31:31,950 --> 00:31:34,490
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437
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438
00:31:35,490 --> 00:31:39,800
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439
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440
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:45,280
going.

441
00:31:45,780 --> 00:31:48,940
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442
00:31:48,950 --> 00:31:56,300
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443
00:31:56,300 --> 00:32:00,790
If you’ve got any suggestions for show topics,
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444
00:32:00,790 --> 00:32:03,740
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445
00:32:04,660 --> 00:32:07,960
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446
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449
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:27,510
This episode would not have been possible
without the generous support of Carla and.....

450
00:32:27,510 --> 00:32:28,750
Carla.

451
00:32:28,750 --> 00:32:32,840
Stay tuned next month for Trouble #20, as
we take a closer look at the horrors of the

452
00:32:32,840 --> 00:32:38,020
Prison Industrial Complex, and talk to comrades
fighting for its abolition.

453
00:32:38,020 --> 00:32:40,340
Prison fixes no problems, it doesn't make
anything better.

454
00:32:40,340 --> 00:32:45,460
Prison is like the permanent threat that holds
up all relationships of exchange and domination.

455
00:32:45,460 --> 00:32:49,180
It's the deeply felt sense that no matter
how bullshit our lives are, there's still

456
00:32:49,190 --> 00:32:51,240
something the state can take away from us.

457
00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:53,320
Now get out there and make some trouble!