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Comment by carbonneutered | Hacker News Reader

Will China be the first regime to have carbon neutral high-tech mass surveillance?

With their newfound riches, imagine what futuristic, renewables-powered dystopia will flourish there.

As opposed to the USA's coal driven mass-surveillance? All developed countries are performing mass surveilance of their citizens, some are more visible (and restrictive) than others.

Disapprove of their government by all means, and even apply diplomatic pressure to encourage them to change it, but I can hardly see why anyone would want to mock their development of renewable energy. If they don't, the whole world suffers.

I don't know if he's mocking China. He is is expressing the ambivalent feeling that many have about China, and he's doing so in a bit of a comedic way.

I am all for witty sarcasm, but this one doesn't add much value to the discussion given weak correlation between mass surveillance and renewable energy.

Is there a weak connection when one literally powers the other?

You are making assumptions. How do you know what powers or will power the surveillance system in China? Also, mass surveillance will always be there regardless of forms of energy it is on, hence the weak correlation.

Not to mention running these video cameras and computer systems is fairly minor in terms of how much energy they consume compared to other activities in the country.

Do the ends justify the means?

This is a bit far-fetched. Not everything China does is for mass surveillance...this could simply be the Chinese government had a taste of how bad Beijing's air quality is and decided to push harder towards renewable energy.

> futuristic, renewables-powered dystopia

Why is it a dystopia?

Assuming one day China goes to space, achieved nuclear fusion. Would human being be more freed in that way than stuck in the freedom in a tiny ball of mud in the universe?

Free to go to space, but not free to criticize your government. Nope, that's not real freedom.

I was implying that earth government are not going to control outerspace nations.

Oh, I see.

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