emc2

@emc2@indieweb.social

Senior research scientist at a major UARC, in information security/distributed systems/formal methods, quantum computing. Former tech industry. Election worker.

#compsci/#infosec background, and aspiring to #physics

Technoprogressive, humanist, reformist, social democrat #socdem, #OpenSource advocate, user, and contributor #OSS.

Interested in collaborating to solve both technical and social problems to build a better world.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

emc2, to random

Note to self: never, and I mean never fly through Atlanta in June.

supernovae, to random

deleted_by_author

    •
    emc2,

    @supernovae

    This is the FSF vs OSS split all over again, unfortunately. Some people get their identity so bound up in being the underdog that they become allergic to being effective ("growth mindset"?!)

    (And I'll acknowledge most people who use the FOSS tag are perfectly fine folks, but you know the ones...)

    emc2, to random

    Now off to San Jose to talk about quantum computing. Though as humid as Baltimore is today, I'm not sure if I'm flying or taking a submarine.

    emc2,

    @jgkoomey I doubt there's a survey article. Right now, it's going to be various startup / growth companies, and skunkworks teams at big corps.

    I can tell you the energy efficiency is going to be absolutely abysmal. Cooling even a small machine down to operating temperatures (millikelvin, in some cases) runs in the tens of kilowatts. A utility scale machine will have all that, plus a dedicated classical supercomputer to handle error correction.

    emc2,

    @jgkoomey I'll look, but I'm pretty sure that's classical.

    Protecting quantum states is much, much harder.

    emc2,

    @jgkoomey I can only see the abstract now, but that's probably enough.

    It's operating at liquid helium temps, which is still a royal pain to deal with, but is more tractable. It looks like you don't need He3, which is a huge benefit.

    It looks like it's using quantum effects, but not storing or processing quantum states (so it's a classical device). Yes that would be quite efficient, if you neglect the cooling.

    emc2,

    @jgkoomey it's at least a decade out, by even the most optimistic estimates

    mrtazz, to random
    @mrtazz@chaos.social avatar

    A Pinky & Brain spin-off for grown ups that always starts with them sitting tired at coffee in the morning:

    Pinky: "What are we going to do tonight?"
    Brain: "Same thing we do every night. Try to go to bed early"

    And then the whole episode is just about how stuff comes up and prevents them from going to bed early.

    emc2,

    @mrtazz you don't have to call me out like that, bro

    hacks4pancakes, to random

    This is not targeted at any one person, just running commentary that people’s posts are less frequent, more angry, more off-topic… it’s not an excuse to be a jerk but keep in mind that maybe around a rough quarter of US private sector cybersecurity people are dealing with impactful budget cuts, have been laid off, or had colleagues laid off and had to take over all their work, or had to actually lay off employees (or worse), and it’s definitely impacting mental health, burnout, and morale. Just my two cents. And we are privileged - it’s way worse in other IT niches and professions. Look out for one another. Be kind.

    emc2,

    @hacks4pancakes my little brother finished a CS undergrad just in time for all this mess...

    emc2, to random

    I am really uplifted by the interactions I've had with all the smart, astute, motivated people here who can see and understand the problems we face, but who approach them with incisive analysis and a can-do attitude.

    It is really, really refreshing. Thank you all.

    J12t, to Futurology
    @J12t@social.coop avatar

    Why would Meta implement ActivityPub? 1½ reasons are compelling, another is not. Those reasons have consequences.

    Blogged. Would love your thoughts.

    https://reb00ted.org/tech/20230625-meta-why-activitypub/

    emc2,

    @J12t Scenario #2 is more or less in line with my current contingent theory; scenario #3 is entirely plausible, and it actually plugs the biggest hole in my own theory (that getting big instances into a franchise-type agreement would just end up with users vacating those instances). It makes sense if the real goal is chaff-deployment to get around regulations.

    jenniferplusplus, to random

    This thread from @emc2 gets at a lot of things I've been thinking about this past week.
    https://indieweb.social/@emc2/110605324790119809

    In all the talk about what to do in response to facebook, I've seen barely any discussion of what good or bad, or success or failure means for the fediverse. Facebook is a threat, yes. But in what way? What are the failure modes for us? Because those are the things we need to address.

    The big one—the really big one—is fracturing the network. If the fediverse splits into one group that talks to facebook and one group that doesn't talk to facebook or anyone who does, both groups will suffer for that. And it's easy to imagine that both will disintegrate.

    emc2,

    @hrefna @jenniferplusplus @misc

    This is totally spitballing blue-sky stuff, but it might be tractable to get more sophisticated, based on the structure that social graphs tend to have. It might be possible to eventually have modes like "keep this confined mostly to my close circle" vs. "project this".

    You could run with this, and get into some pretty sophisticated capabilities, like letting certain content in, other content out.

    emc2,

    @hrefna @jenniferplusplus @misc

    For technical sources, Barabasi's book is a good primer on network theory, there's some more recent work studying the spread of disinfo.

    Actually, now that I think about it, you could totally get grants funded for this! The FediVerse would be a perfect platform for trying out anti-disinfo techniques.

    austinkocher, to random
    @austinkocher@mastodon.social avatar

    That was the Scaramucciest Russian revolution I’ve ever seen.

    emc2,

    @austinkocher When you're so corrupt, you can't even manage to kick off a civil war before someone gets paid off.

    emc2, to Facebook

    I and others have talked a lot about the / issue over the past few days, analyzing their strategy, and possible responses, and why pre-emptive blocking isn't an effective measure.

    This leaves the question of "what should we do?" So....

    ITT: actually effective measures for building the resilience of the FediVerse and , informed by the experience of the movement.

    (This is going to be a long one)

    emc2,

    @WammKD @smallpatatas

    Removing the red-herring components, you're basically saying "people see content from the people they follow". Ok, sure. So don't follow Facebook people, or people who repost garbage.

    This idea that their algorithms are some kind of superintelligence that can manipulate people across multiple hops is magical thinking.

    emc2,

    @WammKD @smallpatatas

    But frankly, I wrote this thread to talk about effective measures for repelling hegemonizing actors, based on principled, factual analysis of how these systems work.

    I'm interested in engaging in those discussions, not this. I've spent enough time on these catastrophizing, bad-faith, and factually-wrong arguments already.

    emc2,

    Postscript: this will be more technical.

    I've seen a few arguments based on the idea that Facebook's algorithm will somehow exert control over the entire network, regardless of follows, through some kind of spooky action-at-a-distance. I suspect these are ultimately rooted in a combination of lack of technical knowledge, plus belief in AI/AGI hype.

    Origins aside, there is ongoing work and usable results on the spread of disinfo that the FediVerse can absolutely use. It's not a magical process.

    emc2,

    The structure of social graphs, particularly in networks like this is not random. It's well-studied. Similarly, the flow of information and influence through it has been the subject of study, as are countermeasures. I have several colleagues who work on this.

    The FediVerse represents an excellent opportunity for more applied R&D to put this into practice at scale, and there is a lot of interest in funding this type of work.

    emc2,

    TL;DR version: defeatism, magical thinking, and catastrophizing can always conjure seemingly unbeatable shadows.

    But incisive analysis, careful planning, strategic thinking, and a can-do attitude can overcome them. Stick with the hacker mindset; it's gotten us very,very far.

    emc2,

    The structure of social graphs, particularly in networks like this is not random. It's well-studied. Similarly, the flow of information and influence through it has been the subject of study, as are countermeasures. I have several colleagues who work on this.

    The FediVerse represents an excellent opportunity for more applied R&D to put this into practice at scale, and there is a lot of interest in funding this type of work.

    emc2,

    TL;DR version: defeatism, magical thinking, and catastrophizing can always conjure seemingly unbeatable shadows.

    But incisive analysis, careful planning, strategic thinking, and a can-do attitude can overcome them. Stick with the hacker mindset; it's gotten us very, very far.

    guffo, to random
    @guffo@topspicy.social avatar

    I refer to this as “stallmanising”

    Named after Richard Stallman, stallmanising is to be so obnoxious about your perfectly good and just cause, that you actively turn people against it.

    Don’t stallmanise your causes.

    emc2,

    @guffo I'm adopting this

    IAmDannyBoling, to random
    @IAmDannyBoling@mstdn.social avatar

    "I feel the need to explain something to the generation that does not remember, or never saw, a world where one person with a high school education could support a family of 5 comfortably.

    "This was real. For millions of US families. It was normal.

    It was stolen from you."

    #IAmDB

    emc2,

    @IAmDannyBoling You can't even necessarily do that with a master's degree these days.

    emc2,

    @IAmDannyBoling As do I, and though I'm a non-kids-haver, I doubt I could.

    anildash, to random
    @anildash@me.dm avatar

    Okay, Mastodon friends, I rarely ask for amplification about my day job, but I personally pushed for my employer to make a big investment in enabling the fediverse, and I'd love for everyone to show that the support is appreciated. On June 28, you can join us for a (FREE!) hands-on conversation about how the Fastly team worked to support @Mastodon while the service was under a massive DDOS attack. Everyone who cares about scaling the fediverse should join: https://learn.fastly.com/security-mitigating-ddos-and-traffic-surges-with-mastodon @devs

    emc2,

    @anildash @Mastodon @devs

    I may be flying at that time, but if I'm sitting in the airport, I'll try and join.

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