[At-Large] R: On techies versus politicians

Thu Sep 15 23:18:37 UTC 2016

Hi,

Andrea Glorioso is an accessible, informed guy who means nothing but well, and is easily misinterpreted esp. on grounds of a single statement. Many of us have had good interactions with him, on subjects of ICANN and Internet governance more generally, over many years.

Using the At Large space for lynching him in absentia when the discussion can be held frontally with him in the place where he published his opinion is a low point (unfortunately not the lowest, and the set is large.) To say the least, it is unbecoming.

Yours,

Alejandro Pisanty

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________________________________
Desde: at-large-bounces at atlarge-lists.icann.org [at-large-bounces at atlarge-lists.icann.org] en nombre de Roberto Gaetano [roberto_gaetano at hotmail.com]
Enviado el: jueves, 15 de septiembre de 2016 16:24
Hasta: bzs at theworld.com; Evan Leibovitch
CC: ICANN At-Large list
Asunto: [At-Large] R: On techies versus politicians

Let me disagree.
I believe that Glorioso's statement is insulting for politicians, not for techies.
He asserts basically that politicians do not pick what factually would be the best solution, because they are sidetracked by sentiments :)
(actually, my opinion is that they are sidetracked by their own hidden agendas)
R

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