Nick posts his thoughts on human randomness, which are, as always, wonderfully intruiging.
As a computer scientist, I have this fundamental notion that human behavior, however erratic, can be modelled algorithmically. Those things that seem impossible today are only a couple Moore’s decades away. Although I’ve experienced the random euphoria Nick mentions, I think that’s just how I’m built as a human. You know, an oversaturated regard for my own autonomy, and an underappreciated connection between myself and other people.
Having said that, data-mining scares the bajeebies out of me. The thought of being so fully understood by a computer, saps me of my healthiest desires. (Yes, I actually have a few.) Nick summons human radomness as “logic of resistance” in the war against assimilation.
However, I would like to fight fire with fire. The only thing better at being random than a human, is a computer! Can’t we build a virtual system that stops up the data-mining pipes, by making random decisions as an agent for human independence? Imagine a grid application like SETI@Home that scoured the web for information on the Taliban, or socialism, or Britney Spears. If it was run by enough people, and was random enough to make data-mining infeasible, we’d have our very own WMR. Weapon of Mass Randomness.
Bring it on, Patriot Act.