[ExI] Wikileaks

[Anders Sandberg]

On 06/12/2010 18:53, spike wrote:
> But hoooow do we know it is *the truth* about their governments?  It came
> from unsecured links (this we know because it was downloaded by a junior
> person with a flash drive) so I can imagine tons of decoys, Trojan horses,
> booby traps and e-trackers in that "truth." PFC Manning could have been
> fooled into leaking bogus info, which Assange merely passed along, which
> could then phone home and be used to net jillions of amateur terrorists.

(Hi there!)

That would have been a neat trick. However, given the fallout in 
diplomatic circles ("Nobody wants to talk to us anymore" as one senior 
diplomat apparently complained) and across a vast number of national 
interests (everything from copyright treaties over trade deals to the 
relationship to various nations) it would be a very costly strategy. 
Maybe that is just to make it more plausible, but so far there has not 
been anything in the leak that seems so enticing that it would net any 
terrorists worth the rest of the trouble.

Of course, maybe the real source was some intelligence agency that was 
uninterested in that it messed up things for nearly all other 
foreign-oriented parts of the government... in which case Heads Will 
Roll when that comes to light internally.

The trouble with conspiracy theory is that it assumes people are really 
competent and know what they are doing.

(According to my contacts in relevant Swedish networks, the sex 
accusations against Assange are likely less of a devious set-up and more 
of a collision of a number of people with bad judgement. Any court case 
will be sleazy and embarassing for anybody involved, the Swedish court 
included.)

-- 
Dr Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University