Peter Cochrane: Ban TikTok? Why not ban the internet?
It's fundamentally impossible to eliminate risk, and excessive focusing on the negatives is blinding us to the positive changes technology has brought
I recently heard a British government minister demanding the closure of TikTok (in the UK) because they could not give a ‘cast iron' guarantee that data would not leak into the hands of the Chinese government.
Obviously this minister had never studied science, mathematics, engineering, systems, or indeed risk, probability and uncertainty. Curiously, there was no mention of the many devices supporting TikTok and other social networks, the vast majority of which are made in China. The fact that these were also supported by software produced in China, India and Russia et al was also overlooked.
Hmm, quite a paradox, and on a par with the recent Huawei 5G fiasco which chose to overlook the ‘supposed risks' also presented by Apple, Lenovo, Acer, Microsoft, Dell, HP and the rest.
The minister's argument, taken to its logical conclusion, would see the eradication of all apps, laptops, tablets, mobiles and PCs, and while we are at it, how about closing down the internet too? Everything in our modern world is built with elements, components, software and complete networks made in China, India and every corner of the planet. This is globalisation, and any assumption of 'total security and privacy' is an unattainable illusion.
To be clear, it is fundamentally impossible to eliminate risk. It is always present in every situation, network and system configuration. You can't hide from it, and it cannot be eradicated. In the same way disease and illness pervades our species and other lifeforms, then risk lurks in every corner of the cyber world.
Risk and evolution go hand in hand
But along with risk come opportunities, discoveries and advancements for the individual and society. Taking risks is a vital part of evolution, life and education that we should not try to deny. If history has taught us anything, it is that all societies that assume stasis through the control of populations and/or technology ultimately stagnate and collapse.
All we can do is mind the consequences and try to minimise the risk at the design stage and on throughout the life cycle of activities and applications. Adding security and safety layers, and other corrective solutions, as quickly and comprehensibly as we can in subsequent product phases is another workable approach. But, we are not looking at a static or predictable situations here, cyber risk evolves rapidly and non-stop 24x7x365. And not all of the many species are man-made, some are created by AI and algorithmic programmes within our computing machines and infrastructure.
In order to minimise cyber risks, we need automated and continually adaptive cyber security solutions spanning applications and services through to core operating systems and connections. There is also a caveat here: we also have to get humans out of this loop as they always add even more risk and failure opportunities, and this really is a machine-on-machine problem.
Focus on the positives
On another level, the vast majority of public and political perception is fed by sensationalised news reports and biased studies. These deal with IT and social media in a particularly negative manner, and neglect the far larger population of positives attributes.
Like it or not, IT supports all our commercial and social activities, and in doing so it educates and saves lives at every level, and that includes many components of social media.
People and politicians would do well to acquaint themselves with the vast catalogue of IT positives, and forget about the apparent need for control and impossible ‘cast iron' dreams. The future of, and for, our species lies with the realistic advancements of technology and not dystopian negativity!
Peter Cochrane OBE is professor of sentient systems at the University of Suffolk, UK