Wawancara dengan Prof. Google : Wikileaks
Shalom. Pada kesempatan ini kita kembali berbincang dengan Prof Google, guru besar di universitas jagad maya. Sebelumnya, kami pernah bertemu beliau untuk membahas jasa search engine (dalam kehidupan sehari-hari. Kali ini, wartawan bawah tanah kami, yang kerap menggunakan nama samaran Iqra Bismi Rabbika (kita juga bingung bagaimana dia bisa lolos imigrasi AS), bertemu khusus dengan Prof Google di Silicon Valley, untuk membahas Wikileaks dan penggunaan Internet sebagai alat penyebar kebenaran, atau juga kebohongan. Simak!
Iqra Bismi Rabbika (I) : Thanks for having us Mr.Google. I hope everything is going well.
Prof Google (G) : Oh yes..quite well. Frankly, I’ve seen…..better days.
I : Yes..they call it climate change, if I’m not mistaken. Well, if you don’t mind, we’d like to talk about the latest internet phenomenon, Wikileaks. What do you think of it?
G : (Inhales deeply..) Oooh yess..it’s giving me quite the headache you know. It’s quite the hide and seek game with them. I mean, I appreciate what they are doing. But you have no idea how many servers they are putting at stake. Not to mention who is going after them.
I : You don’t sound like their biggest fan..
G : Oh no no, don’t get me wrong. I think it’s great what they are doing. My only concern is the aftermath. It’s because their jeopardizing the whole system. And I am talking about security here. People’s security. World security. You ought to know, we Internet guardians have also a kind of code of conduct, a kind of gentleman’s agreement in terms of data handling and trafficking. And as an internet search engine, I’m only allowed to show data that has been approved and affirmed by the Internet Council, namely the internet users themselves. In other words, there are loads of stuff that is inappropriate to be shown on the net. And that is where Wikileaks made their wrong turn. They’re bringing up data that endangers the whole system.
I : But let’s take a look at the purpose of Wikileaks itself. I’ve done a bit research, and found their philosophy, or let’s say, the idea behind the establishment of Wikileaks. It says that “We believe that it is not only the people of one country that keep their own government honest, but also the people of other countries who are watching that government through the media”…”we believe the world’s media should work together as much as possible to bring stories to a broad internationaI readership”.
I think that this is a very noble, brave and radical thing to do. Isn’t this something what the whole world has been longing for? I think that for the first time, the internet has finally done mankind something good. You might even say that Wikileaks symbolizes salvation, a promise of freedom and hope for a better world. How do you see this?
G : You know,… (takes a long pause)…since when does the world accept extremists? Julian Assange is a genius you know, he may be the Gandhi of the digital era. He would be Neo if the world were the Matrix. But I guess he will be nothing more than a martyr for truth. We will always see people who sacrifice themselves for a greater cause…and he even got laid randomly as a bonus..
But I admit, Wikileaks has brought the world, or the virtual world to be precise, to another level. Governments will face an internet paranoia, ISP’s and webhosts will tighten their security measures, and millions of hacker wannabees will try to steal anything that says “confidential” from important agencies. Digital war is for real. Nowadays, control of information is the ultimate weapon of mass destruction. You know if I wanted, I could’ve blackmailed every president you could think of. Just by mouseclick..
I : So why haven’t you?
G : I have no interest in that…I’d rather check the latest in Redtube. But it is of course very intriguing to find out the truth about things. The real things that happen are usually the ones you don’t want to believe in. And I’m aware of the power that internet bears in spreading this so called “truth”
The real question we should ask ourselves is, why do you have to hide in secrecy in order to tell the truth, or finding out the truth? Is there any way in this world for man to live side by side with truthfulness? Or let me give you another perspective, who promises that the world would be better without lies, propaganda and deception? But I can see that we’re going nowhere here…
I : Sounds like you don’t believe in Wikileaks afterall. What brings this skepticism?
G : Well, you know, in a time where privacy, personal identity, and even personal life has ceased, no one has the right to claim to have the truth. It is far too easy to manipulate things.
But, maybe I’m only cynical because I can tell that Wikileaks won’t bring any significant change into the political landscape. Will it prevent war? No. Can it impeach the president? No. Does it enact a revolution in the countries that are mentioned? No. Has it brought the States to the international court? Nope. But the Every failed propaganda will only be followed by new ones. But nuff about politics. You can ask Noam Chomsky about that.
I : Do you happen to have his number?
G : Who? Noam? Of course I have..who do you think I am? Altavista?
I : So, what do you think of filesharing, or peer to peer journalism? Some people even say that Wikileaks has created a new means of sharing information, by enabling every one to download the secret information they’ve uploaded.
G : You know it’s pretty much like stealing your classmate’s diary and then sharing it to the bad guys. Except that this deals with political information. But this is great..yes. I think this is the real innovation Wikileaks has created. And it will be unstoppable, since it will be a new way of sharing information.
On the other hand, I think, that as soon as these data get in the hand of ordinary people, truth itself will lose its legitimacy. The value of the information in that ‘diary’ will eventually cease.
I : Do you believe in censorship?
G : I believe that man has limited capacity to grasp the truth and reality which is really out there. In truth, you don’t want to know.
I : Do you believe in yourself?
G : No. But people do.. Sting was actually thinking about me when he wrote If I Ever Lose My Faith in You(Laughs out loud). You know young man, it would be naïve to think that my presence serves no one interests’. Yes it is true that the internet has an open access and is a powerful tool for everyone.. but who do you think is paying my wage every month?
What interests do you think those guys have? Why do you think has this company put up a lot of fight against China? Why the effort? Who do you think controls the satelites that run your Googlemaps?
You know, I will never understand the hype around Bill Gates and his, pardon my french, goddamn Microsoft..all those open source activists grumbling about Microsoft controling the software and license market..Microsoft is long dead you know.
When will they finally realize that Google is the biggest threat? Yes, you heard me right. I am the biggest threat. People need to stop googlelizing their life. From search engines, emails, translations, libraries, cellphones, softwares, maps,..there is no escaping me. Thank god they haven’t googlelized your closet..
I : (speechless)… I agree with that. I mean, with the closet thing.
G : Google will eat itself up. I hope it does. I am Proudhon by heart if you really want to know.
Wikileak/Technology is maybe this is a good thing ….
We NEED proper steering mechanism to survive the global society we created with technology. It's urgend, at this moment our society has an obsolete 200 years old steering mechanism. How can a few wise people understand these complex global issues pending ?
Would we have gone to Iraq over Weapons of mass destruction is we were part of the diplomatic cable discussion ?
Better of with more transparency ? Credit Crises / Cable gate shows governments are not so much in control of the global society.
Wasn't it work of the press to tell us the truth ?
At least the cork out of the bottle. Fact is that secrets are harder to keep anno 2010.
Shutting down is naive. Discuss it is the only option.. Come on free press, have vision ..take the lead.