FRI., MAY 23, 2008
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eMusic Q&A: Cory Doctorow, Pt. 3
by Sarah Weinman
At one point, seeing what the post-terrorist world and his jamming activities as M1k3y [the screen name Marcus adopts after the terrorist attacks] has done to his father, Marcus remarks, "I'd done that to him. He'd been happy before, confident that his tax dollars were being spent to keep him safe. I'd destroyed that confidence. It was false confidence, of course, but it had kept him going. Seeing him now, miserable and broken, I wondered if it was better to be clear-eyed and hopeless or to live in a fool's paradise." Obviously, Marcus comes to a particular answer, but what advantages are there in false confidence, especially in terms of surviving horrible things? Where does hope fit into the picture?
If you believe in security problems, think the world is unsafe, and that it's okay to kill civilians to make a point, then it's all the more important not to have false confidence. An incorrect view of security is very dangerous because it sets you up to fall into a trap of thinking that every incremental new thing of security makes you safer, leaving you to walk down this road where things get harder and harder for everyone, but not safer.
Imagine something precious to you and in a safe made of steel. But that level of safety isn't enough, so you upgrade the steel door's lock. Instead of making you safer, it just makes it harder to get access to your stuff when you need it most. If there's a reason to worry that this is part of a nefarious plan, then having false confidence is like living in a fool's paradise. The great dilemma skeptics of security "theater" are those people you meet who blithely say, "Well, it makes us a little safer. Isn't it worth doing if it makes us a bit safer?" This is a shortsighted view, and it's difficult to watch a whole world turn molasses-thick dumb about security, but you end up kind of looking like a pain in the ass if you spend your whole life picking fights.
A friend of mine is an editor for Wikipedia and has a lot of experience moderating messy fights. The most important rule she has is: Don't let assholes rent space in your head, don't let bad guys set your agenda. If your whole life is spent responding and anticipating what some notional bad guy will do instead of setting out an affirmative agenda and taking steps to accomplish it, you'll never win and never accomplish much.
Unlike most young adult novels, Little Brother includes two afterwords — one by security technologist Bruce Schneier, the other by Xbox hacker Andrew "bunnie" Huang. Why did you decide to include them?
I wanted the book to be as much of a verb as a noun so that when kids turn a page, they can be excited about doing the kind of things that are talked about in the book. It allows people to be more actualized, more powerful and more self-controlling about their choices, and so I thought, why not ask the two people who could best explain these concepts to write about them? They were Bruce and bunnie. It's also why I included a bibliography, to give kids yet another jumping off point for them to learn more.
To read more of Sarah Weinman's interview with Cory Doctorow, including what he imagines Marcus's playlist might be like, click here.
If you believe in security problems, think the world is unsafe, and that it's okay to kill civilians to make a point, then it's all the more important not to have false confidence. An incorrect view of security is very dangerous because it sets you up to fall into a trap of thinking that every incremental new thing of security makes you safer, leaving you to walk down this road where things get harder and harder for everyone, but not safer.
Imagine something precious to you and in a safe made of steel. But that level of safety isn't enough, so you upgrade the steel door's lock. Instead of making you safer, it just makes it harder to get access to your stuff when you need it most. If there's a reason to worry that this is part of a nefarious plan, then having false confidence is like living in a fool's paradise. The great dilemma skeptics of security "theater" are those people you meet who blithely say, "Well, it makes us a little safer. Isn't it worth doing if it makes us a bit safer?" This is a shortsighted view, and it's difficult to watch a whole world turn molasses-thick dumb about security, but you end up kind of looking like a pain in the ass if you spend your whole life picking fights.
A friend of mine is an editor for Wikipedia and has a lot of experience moderating messy fights. The most important rule she has is: Don't let assholes rent space in your head, don't let bad guys set your agenda. If your whole life is spent responding and anticipating what some notional bad guy will do instead of setting out an affirmative agenda and taking steps to accomplish it, you'll never win and never accomplish much.
Unlike most young adult novels, Little Brother includes two afterwords — one by security technologist Bruce Schneier, the other by Xbox hacker Andrew "bunnie" Huang. Why did you decide to include them?
I wanted the book to be as much of a verb as a noun so that when kids turn a page, they can be excited about doing the kind of things that are talked about in the book. It allows people to be more actualized, more powerful and more self-controlling about their choices, and so I thought, why not ask the two people who could best explain these concepts to write about them? They were Bruce and bunnie. It's also why I included a bibliography, to give kids yet another jumping off point for them to learn more.
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