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5 Tools to Be Safe on the Internet

November 4, 2024

computer, ignorance, programming, society, technology

It’s not just that technology is changing at a fast pace; it’s changing at an accelerating pace. Heck, even the pace of acceleration is accelerating, too. Put simply, it’s really hard to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to computers, the internet, and IT security. Sadly, IT security is not considered a crucial skill, though it is. Just imagine how much of our daily life revolves around computers. So here are 5 tools to help you be safe on the internet.

These are all things I use myself on a daily basis. I can’t imagine using a computer (especially online) without them. I’m paranoid when it comes to IT security – read my post on Home for Fiction changes to see why – so I want to absolutely minimize the risk.

To be 100% clear, in case it’s not immediately apparent: This post isn’t sponsored; none of these tools’ authors paid me to do this. I’m only doing this because I genuinely think these tools are useful to the average user. Nay, these tools are critical for a safe internet and computing experience.

tools for safe internet. Image of a screen showing computer code — The internet and computers come across as so complicated to most people that a stock image such as this (depicting some simple code) connotes ideas of a hacker penetrating a secret database or something…

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Thucydides and Linux: a Free or a Peaceful OS?

May 27, 2024

Society

computer, ignorance, society, technology

You’ve got to admit, seeing Thucydides and Linux together in the same sentence isn’t something ordinary. “Linux” and “free” is far more common, for obvious reasons. But whether Linux is free is one discussion; whether it’s a peaceful operating system yet another.

So where does Thucydides, the ancient Greek historian, enter the picture?

You might recall from some previous posts – for instance, the concluding section of writing academic theses – that Cornelius Castoriadis, drawing on Thucydides, puts forward an apt suggestion: We can be free or we can be peaceful, but being both is impossible.

In our time – when to some/many/most/[pick depending on your neighbors] people to be free means to own guns – understanding the repercussions of freedom becomes more pressing than ever.

And yes, this includes your operating system! However, I should make one thing clear here: The role of this post is not to glorify one OS and snub others. It’s not even about computers and technology – not primarily at least. The post is about society.

Linux free, not peaceful; AI render of Thucydides using a computer on Acropolis — As if combining Thucydides and Linux wasn’t wild enough, I thought to reach the utmost of absurdity and use AI to generate this image

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The Danger of Partial Knowledge: My ChatGPT Encounter

March 13, 2023

Philosophy, Society

ignorance, knowledge, programming, society, technology

The old piece of wisdom might be right: It’s better to know nothing about something, rather than know a little. Of course, referring to partial knowledge is a sort of misnomer. Philosophically speaking, virtually all knowledge is partial – cogito ergo sum and all that. But socially speaking, the gradations are more intriguing.

The reason? Because of our old friend, the Dunning-Kruger effect. When it comes to partial knowledge – knowing a little of something – there is a peculiar paradox at play: When we know a little, we think we know a lot; when we know more (the threshold is subjective), we know that we only know a little.

As I said above, though there are philosophical dimensions in this topic, the focus of this post will be on society. I have always been interested in ignorance and the illusion of knowledge (as long-term readers of the blog have realized), but recently I had an experience that intrigued me with its repercussions: I tried asking the famous ChatGPT AI model questions on a topic I know ~~very well~~ enough to know I don’t know anything: the Gothic. The responses I got were very intriguing for our context of partial knowledge.

Partial Knowledge - woman reading — The only way out of the darkness of ignorance is through personal, active effort, paired with humility: “I only know that I know nothing”

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