Interested in the intersections between policy, law and technology. Programmer, lawyer, civil servant, orthodox Marxist. Blind.


Interesado en la intersección entre la política, el derecho y la tecnología. Programador, abogado, funcionario, marxista ortodoxo. Ciego.

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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 5th, 2023

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  • I read it, and I really enjoyed it. I will give a few reasons.

    There are tons of spoilers here, by the way, you were warned.

    References to the themes the work relates to including some specific events.
    1. Focus on language. The entire conceit of translation means there’s lots of careful language in the book, which I enjoy reading.
    2. Theme. There are two major themes I can see that I enjoyed: on one hand, the theme of imperialism, with the British Empire making use of its power to oppress people abroad. This is certainly central. On the other hand, the operation of empire doesn’t even help most British people themselves, hence the uprising. These themes are interesting to me.
    3. Subthemes. But there are a lot of subthemes, issue that make you think when reading the book. Just a couple of examples: brain drain, the way translators are plucked off their societies to serve empire; the interaction of relative privilege with relative oppression, in the way that the foreign-looking translators get treated at the party; the notion of language itself as an exploitable resource (more relevant in connection to AI and the use and exploitation of corpora); the weaknesses of imperial centralisation, which could also be a critique of the cloud (the way the silver bars are connected to teach other); and the whole thorny issue of white feminism, which is very sharply demonstrated by one particular character.

    I also think there are very poignant situations in the book: the two brothers at odds, the reluctance to violence, the scene where the professor beats his pupil, the attempt to follow Muslim ethics and law while having to handle practical reality…

    So in short, it was one of my favourite books in the last few years. It also illuminates the opium wars in a way that hasn’t often been done before.







  • Very well-reasoned article, though the political constraints might end up making implementing its recommendations impossible. Hard to see how the US and EU could make the rhetorical shifts it would take. If events continue as they are now, the military realities may preclude it. While it seems advantageous to reach a negotiated settlement for all sides at the moment, this will not remain the case forever.


  • modulus@lemmy.mltoLemmy@lemmy.mlRFC for Private Communities in Lemmy
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    1 year ago

    I can think of alternatives. For example, the server could keep the user’s private key, encrypted with a passphrase that the user must have. So key loss wouldn’t be an issue. (Yes, passphrase loss might, but there are lots of ways to keep those safely already, compared to key material which is difficult to handle.)











  • Not that I expect a lot of consistency from imperialists, but essentially the same lines of argument can be used regarding the Russian Federation.

    An advisory opinion would effectively settle Israel’s “bilateral dispute” without the state’s consent.

    Ditto for .ru and .ua.

    The court is not equipped to examine a “broad range of complex factual issues concerning the entire history of the parties’ dispute”.

    Same thing, especially if we get back to the formation of the Soviet Union, independence referenda, and so on.

    An advisory opinion would conflict with existing agreements between the parties and negotiation frameworks endorsed by the UN.

    This would be Minsk I and II.

    The request is not appropriate as it asks the court to “assume unlawful conduct on the part of Israel”.

    Ditto.