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<div>Let me disagree.</div>
<div>I believe that Glorioso's statement is insulting for politicians, not for techies.</div>
<div>He asserts basically that politicians do not pick what factually would be the best solution, because they are sidetracked by sentiments <font face="Wingdings">J</font></div>
<div>(actually, my opinion is that they are sidetracked by their own hidden agendas)</div>
<div>R</div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div>> -----Messaggio originale-----</div>
<div>> Da: at-large-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org [<a href=""></a>mailto:at-large-</div>
<div>> bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org] Per conto di bzs@theworld.com</div>
<div>> Inviato: giovedì 15 settembre 2016 20:04</div>
<div>> A: Evan Leibovitch</div>
<div>> Cc: ICANN At-Large list</div>
<div>> Oggetto: Re: [At-Large] On techies versus politicians</div>
<div>> </div>
<div>> </div>
<div>> On September 15, 2016 at 13:30 <a href="mailto:evan@telly.org">evan@telly.org</a> (Evan Leibovitch) wrote:</div>
<div>> > From a Facebook post by Andrea Glorioso (unedited):</div>
<div>> ></div>
<div>> > The problem with engineer-like folks trying to do politics is that most of</div>
<div>> > them don't understand that emotions are often more powerful than</div>
<div>> facts, and</div>
<div>> > that they are simply not as relevant for the the person they are debating</div>
<div>> > with, or as powerful in the grand scheme of things, as they think.</div>
<div>> ></div>
<div>> > If I had a dime for every "techie" who won the battle of showing he</div>
<div>> knew</div>
<div>> > more than his counterpart, just to lose the war of actually getting the</div>
<div>> > long-term result s/he wanted, I'd be reasonably well-off (some techies</div>
<div>> do</div>
<div>> > understand politics - some.)</div>
<div>> </div>
<div>> This borders on offensive and self-aggrandizing stereotyping.</div>
<div>> </div>
<div>> One doesn't have to spend a lot of time at ICANN meetings etc to pick up on</div>
<div>> the anti-old-guard/techie sentiments by the non-techie policy wonks,</div>
<div>> lawyers, etc.</div>
<div>> </div>
<div>> It's not shocking they find people who might actually understand how a lot of</div>
<div>> this works threatening and want to minimize their participation. At any</div>
<div>> meeting or forum they may get publicly humbled in a sentence or two</div>
<div>> amounting to "that's impossible, it doesn't even work that way, not at all".</div>
<div>> </div>
<div>> They don't get that scrutiny from their fellow non-technical wonks who tend</div>
<div>> to agree that making PI exactly 3 would be easier to remember (who could</div>
<div>> argue? common sense!), do we have a second? All in favor?</div>
<div>> </div>
<div>> When someone dismisses the competence of a group with as broad a term</div>
<div>> as "engineer-like" that person should be shut down.</div>
<div>> </div>
<div>> This type of thinking marks one as a dinosaur.</div>
<div>> </div>
<div>> The world is changing around them, fast. The technical tide is rising and any</div>
<div>> separation of technical and political is fading.</div>
<div>> </div>
<div>> No doubt it is scary to those who can't keep up and their inclination is to wish</div>
<div>> it away by discrediting those who do understand it.</div>
<div>> </div>
<div>> Increasingly we live in a world where:</div>
<div>> </div>
<div>> 1. Business and trade live on blockchains and increasingly "automatic</div>
<div>> contracts" and all that implies. And often implemented by neural nets.</div>
<div>> </div>
<div>> 2. Technology has democratized and globalized crime and espionage to such</div>
<div>> an extent that we rely on technology not policy to combat it. No one</div>
<div>> disagrees that crimes are involved, or only rarely.</div>
<div>> </div>
<div>> 3. Internet protocol specs have human rights implications and need to be</div>
<div>> evaluated in that light. There's an entire IETF research group devoted to this,</div>
<div>> I follow it.</div>
<div>> </div>
<div>> 4. Issues such as "net neutrality" get so tangled in the technical realities of</div>
<div>> what that means that most policy makers speak utter nonsense about it</div>
<div>> trying desparately to make it fit into their mental models.</div>
<div>> </div>
<div>> 5. Individual empowerment on the internet for billions of people revolves</div>
<div>> around not so much what everyone has a "right" to do or not, that's of some</div>
<div>> importance of course, but rather how one, specifically, one might achieve</div>
<div>> that beyond mouthing a few audience-pleasing platitudes.</div>
<div>> </div>
<div>> 6. Nation-state censorship and cyber-oppression can be enabled or thwarted</div>
<div>> not only by policy which often no one has much say over but a myriad of</div>
<div>> technologies such as VPNs, alternate infrastructures (e.g., alt roots), and</div>
<div>> encryption techniques.</div>
<div>> </div>
<div>> The above comment mirrors broad swaths on why women shouldn't be</div>
<div>> given the vote (too emotional!) or similar.</div>
<div>> </div>
<div>> --</div>
<div>> -Barry Shein</div>
<div>> </div>
<div>> Software Tool & Die | <a href="mailto:bzs@TheWorld.com">bzs@TheWorld.com</a> |</div>
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