Hacker News Reader

Comment by 07d046 | Hacker News Reader

I don't think "hate" is the best word, but I would say the concern is that Huawei can be wielded as a weapon by the Chinese Communist Party in any way they see fit. Even if you look at it from a country-neutral perspective, it's more threatening than Google because everything ultimately serves The Party in the Chinese system in a way that is unknown to liberal democracies.

View on HN

Google has more potential to harm. Imagine if they come up with a technology to replace HTTP and HTML, so that you can't modify web pages you visit. You open up a website and it's like you're looking at a video stream of it, except you can interact with UI elements but can't remove ads. Then they make your browsing history immutable and available to companies that can affect your career and finances. Of course they will leave the option to make it "private" if buy a premium account. Then they become an internet provider and ban VPNs and proxies. Then they make it required for you to consume ads for one hour per week, otherwise you loose access to the internet and your data. Then they implant an electronic device in your brain so that this happy hour of ad consumption happens against your will. Of course you will have the freedom to choose when to engage in it: 15 minutes before going to bed for a few days, or the whole hour right away. It interacts deeply with your brain, ruthlessly rewriting neural connections unlike visiual stumulation by eye. Then the government acquires this technology and they choose to inflict pain on those who disobey or has something to say. Then they learn to read the minds in a crude way. If you plan to do something about it then your brain is forced to experience the maximum pain it is capable of experiencing. It all happpens automatically. Those in control do not wear such devices.

Does anybody have any science fiction recommendations along these lines?

Not that exact set of events, but I liked Anon on Netflix, which is about an implant that records everything you see and say, which of course the government has access to. It reminds me a bit of Google Glass and GPS in Android.

More threatening to you perhaps, I'm assuming you're from USA.

USA government seem willing to use its tech sector to achieve political ends too, case in point being the interference President Trump has made in European companies in trying to win contacts for 5G by smearing Chinese companies.

In USA everything appears to serve a capitalist elite.

As, IIRC, Jerome K Jerome said "under capitalism man exploits man, under communism it's the other way around".

Under these specific instances of Western Capitalism and State Controlled Economy they seem rather close to being the same thing: a system in which an elite cadre immorally exploit the rest of society.

Huawei is a security threat to America in the same way Canadian steel and aluminum is a security threat.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com