Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Wikileaks The Big Picture
Wikileaks The Big Picture
ch/wiki/WikiLeaks:Big_picture"
WikiLeaks:Big picture
From WikiLeaks
Introduction
Take off your journalists hat for a moment and think like a physicist. I will provide you with a useful
analogy to understand what we are doing.
Here we make the following claims.
1. Journalism (investigative) has a substantial positive effect on the world.
2. The positive impacts on the world are limited by four scalable factors
1. The number of investigative journalists
2. The number of sources
3. The efficient collaboration between sources and journalists and journalists and
journalists
4. Distribution of the results of journalism into minds of the people
Journalism can be seen as analogous to a series of connected systems. Here the arrow '->' represents the
flow of causation.
reality -> observation -> non-linearity (cognition) -> action -> reality
1 2 3 4 5
Journalists, the writing process, and their immediate collaboration with each other and their research
tools form the cognitive processes at 3.
Since 1 and 5 are connected through time, there is a potential feedback loop — the state of reality can
change over time. No surprise there.
We are interested in a property of reality, I will call justice although there are many passionate
definitions from liberté, egalité, fraternité to least suffering to the greatest number. It is a property of
reality that we can "measure", compare and describe. Let us call this property J.
It is Wikileaks' goal to maximize J. [1]
Assume this system is a complete description and there are no other influences on J. This is not true,
but I claim it is true enough to provide us with an abstraction that enables us to think with greater
clarity about some aspect of the phenomena.
Let us restrict our consideration to remove some ambiguity in the word-labels we are using for the 4
sub systems:
a) All change in the state of any subsystem comes from the
influence of the previous subsystem. In particular a
subsystem does not change its state over time other than
through the loop of cause and effect just described.
Journalists exist at point 3. Publishers and distributors are 4.1. The non-journalistic political feedback
process is at 4.2, but in the flow from 4.2 to 5 we are only considering, by definition, that part induced
by the flow from 4.1 that contributes to a just society.
We can label the flow of influence between these subsystems as well.
routing
of sources watching, listening
to analysts reading
| |
| |
people -> sources -> analysis -> distribution -> mass cogitation -> people
1 | 2 3 | 4.1 4.2 | 5
| | |
source routing of analysis to self interaction
access to info publications
Finally we can we can look at this in terms of the capacity of each subsystem and the quantity of
influence flowing between one subsystem and another that ends up contributing to justice.
Where analysis capacity is approximately the number of analysts x their avg ability x their
collaborative ability. All together these can be seen as cognitive device that transforms the output of
sources into something else.
What is needed to maximize reform?
B1. Increase the ability for sources to access information
B2. Increase the number of sources
B3. Increase the amount that flows from sources to journalists/analysts
B4. Increase the number, the ability and the collaboration of journalists/analysts
B5. Increase the circulation of analysis output to the readership
B6. Increase the impact of the information on the readership
We can see immediately from outside considerations, that these are not independent variables in
relation to their effect on reform. For instance, the full effect of a dramatic increase in the number of
sources will not flow through the system unless it coincides with a dramatic increase in analysis
capacity. Likewise the full effect of an increase in analysis capacity will not be realized unless there is
an increase in the amount of source material that flows through to it.
To demonstrate the reasonableness of the model, let us examine two existing cases with it:
[3]
In other words,
Journalists without fresh sources have nothing to say that is worth listening to.
Addendum
The more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its
leadership and planning coterie. This must result in the corrosion of internal communication and
decision making mechanisms and consequent system-wide decline in strategic and tactical abilities
used to hold onto power as the environment demands adaption.
Hence in a world where leaking is easy, secretive or unjust systems find themselves in crippling
conditions compared to open, just systems. Since unjust systems, by their nature induce opponents, and
in many places barely have the upper hand, mass leaking leaves them exquisitely vulnerable to those
who seek to replace them with more open forms of governance.
Notes
1. ↑ Any understudy of mankind knows that the stated goal is rarely the only one. While it is true
that we, as individuals, all have additional motives, from revenging murdered or tortured friends
and relatives, to obeying the dictates of character, J is what we share. It is our commonality.
2. ↑ built on the back of technological inventions which make it hard for primitive sub-conscious
processing regions of the brain to tell fantasy and reality apart. A good example is the raised
breathing and heart rate of any horror movie attendee, or perhaps more interestingly, the change
in reactions they show on returning home to what was, and still is and what they will claim to
"know" still is, a perfectly innocent closet. Advertising, including political advertising, uses
analogous techniques to modify people's feelings and behavior without changing what they
"know" to be true declaratively.
3. ↑ Reformers who are always compromising must understand that the truth is the only firm
ground on which to stand.
Retrieved from "http://www.wikileaks.ch/wiki/WikiLeaks:Big_picture"
Vi