Alcinder's Blog

Overall this documentary has not changed my mind about Edward Snowden. I have been seeing him in the same manner ever since I learned of his true cause. Once I learned that Edward Snowden was not a terrorist, as the media preached, and instead an activist for freedom, my vision of him became very clear.  This documentary has made me very interested in learning about the intelligence community. To me, it feels like this is a super secretive community of people that live lives of constant danger to expose the truth. It might be a fantasization of the group, but I wonder how they stay so safe yet interconnected. Maybe this summer, I could conduct a private investigation of my own to see how to stay as anonymous as they do.  I find it to be a very interesting oxymoron that president Obama would be an icon of freedom, yet condone such an action. This is what made me wonder that if president Obama was able to see all of the things that the NSA had lied about and manipulated, would h...

  For years now, I have tried my best to practice anonymity online. I only try to be anonymous when it comes to me going to particular sites and looking up particular things. For example, if I find something that’s politically motivated or something that I have doubts in, I will practice my anonymity to conduct my research properly. This is proven to be very useful for me, as I have been able to deduce the truth more accurately by being anonymous in my searches. In practicing this philosophy, I have found that there is a roadmap of obstacles that you must overcome. Truly being anonymous is to sacrifice the false safety that the current internet provides. I have seen several podcasts, videos, and live conferences that spoke on the importance of anonymity as not only a way to protect your own privacy, but as a way to also safely express yourself. When we were watching the Ted talks and going over how invasive other people can be, I found myself realizing how important implementing th...

Our conversation about the innovations that are being made with Hive Track and Bee Informed Partnership were really something to behold. Dr. Wilkes made many of the keep programs that formed our computers science department. Out of all that we talked about, there was a statement made in class the really resinated with me. Dr. Wilkes said "No one cares until there is money involved". That has me thinking about how the future of honey selling is going to handle decentralized finance. One the things that I spoke with Dr. Wilkes about was how decentralized finance will play in how honey is sold in the future. If there is a blockchain smart contract that is managing all of the data of a single jar of honey and the profits of that jar is given back to the blockchain, then money will be flowing throughout the entire project. What happens to peoples data once that comes into play? It makes me wonder which powers within the company will seek action for claim to the data. If this proje...

It was amazing to see that there were so many commonalities from people from different backgrounds. While I was hearing everyone speak on their ethics, I found myself becoming more connected with the people in my class. It almost felt like everyones words were really meaningful and showed how their culture and ideals shaped who they are today. Another important note that resonated with me was the impact of the internet as we were growing up. It is very interesting because for a long time I have been able to both be impacted by the expansion of the internet, but have also been able to see how it has affected people younger than me. My little cousin, from birth, has had access to the internet and I have been able to see how she has taken to it for educational value. Now, she knows that if she seeks for a question to be answered, she can just google it or post it on Instagram. Seeing both the younger people and my own interaction on the internet has been very eye opening and strange. I fe...