Cybernethics / Cybernéthique

I've recently discovered the word captcha. Of course, I already knew the concept. I first faced it on the internet long ago, quite possibly at the time when there were still free SMS services and they tried to limit abuse. Then, I wrote about using them in my article stamps vs spam.

Captchas are an inconvenience, but that's their whole point of them: they are a economic signalling device, by which the solver proves that he cares by accepting a sunk cost. The real problem with captchas is that they can be defeated, thanks to distributed porn-processing. Or maybe not.

Vous le savez peut-être, je boycotte par principe les élections politiques, car je refuse de cautionner le pouvoir sur moi de quelqu'homme politique que ce soit, et je refuse de me faire complice d'un tel pouvoir sur autrui. Ni esclave, ni maître. Chaque voix qui leur est donnée est un soutien à leur imposture; les citoyens ne seront libres que quand plus personne n'ira voter, et que les politichiens n'auront personne derrière qui se tenir pour cacher leur usurpation. Cependant, je vais voter au prochain référendum et je conseille à ceux qui le peuvent de voter aussi. Pourquoi?

Aslan Maskhadov. He wanted his people free from the KGB. The KGB refused any negociation. The KGB unleashed a horrible war of mass-killing. The KGB won.

The French officials call that National sovereignty. The Americans officials call that Saving the Union. I call that the same old pretense for the mass-killing of dissidents.

The usual leftist professionals of outrage aren't outraged a bit. And if anything is to be blamed about Russia, it's its wild "ultra-capitalism", they will tell you, not its criminal statism, and not the fundamentalist muslim terrorism. Puke.

UPDATE: I stand corrected concerning Maskhadov, although I'm reserving my judgment pending further confirmation. Thanks to averros in the comments section below. I still call the KGB bastard an evil killer based on illegitimate claims of sovereignty; but so was possibly Maskhadov another evil killer based on rival illegitimate claims of sovereignty -- though further information is required for me to tell. However, it still seems very clear to me that the KGB bastard is a great evil, far beyond what Maskhadov could possibly be. Importantly, I still salute Joe Random Chechen Non-Murderous Freedom Fighter, though he might be rarer than I believe he is, and though the last one might have ceased to fight quite some time ago.