Will the machines take over? Why Elon Musk thinks so. (+video)

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Just as Tony Stark warns of the dangers of high-tech weaponry in the wrong hands, Elon Musk the Tesla and SpaceX founder who is regularly compared to Iron Man's not-so-secret identity is raising the alarm about advances in artificial intelligence.

The Space X founder called artificial intelligence "our biggest existential threat," at an MIT symposium, comparing it to "summoning the demon."

Musk opined that governments need to begin regulating artificial intelligence development, saying that HAL 9000 the sentient computer antagonist in the Space Odyssey series would be "like a puppy dog" in comparison to what is possible.

This isn't the first time he's gone public with this fear.

Musk has apparently done some heavy reading of late Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom of the University of Oxfords Future of Humanity Institute raises the questions, "What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us?"

Musk took to Twitter in August to encourage others to read the book, adding, "We need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes." Musk also suggested James Barrat's "Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era," which argues such intelligence could threaten human existence.

He then continued to muse on the impending doom of robots undermining human intelligence:

In June, Musk drew references to "The Terminator," telling CNBC he invests in companies working on artificial intelligence to keep an eye on developments.

Roger McNamee, Elevation Partners co-founder, was quick to disagree.

"In a world where we have the NSA looking at everything that we do, where the government is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on fighter planes that can't fly, and where we're starting wars in countries we can't possibly win in, it seems to me that worrying about AI is irrelevant," he told CNBC.

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Will the machines take over? Why Elon Musk thinks so. (+video)

Elon Musk: Artificial intelligence is like "summoning the demon"

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Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, pictured here on October 09, 2014, said he fears the dangerous potential of artificial intelligence. Kevork Djansezian, Getty Images

Elon Musk, SpaceX and Tesla founder, expressed grave concerns about artificial intelligence, deeming it a threat to humanity, in a recent appearance at MIT.

"With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon," Musk said in an interview during last week's centennial celebration of the MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department. "You know all those stories where there's the guy with the pentagram and the holy water and he's like... yeah, he's sure he can control the demon, [but] it doesn't work out."

This is not the first time Musk has made such comments about artificial intelligence, also known as A.I. In June he stated that he invests in companies that work on developing A.I., not for profit, but because he wants to keep an eye on the technology, and in August he tweeted that A.I. is "potentially more dangerous than nukes."

In the recent MIT interview, Musk suggested that it might be a good idea for the government to get involved in efforts to prevent A.I.-related dangers.

"If I were to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it's probably that," he said, referring to artificial intelligence. "I'm increasingly inclined to think there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level just to make sure that we don't do something very foolish."

You can watch the interview with Musk in this video:

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Elon Musk: Artificial intelligence is like "summoning the demon"

Poll: Are you scared of robots?

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Chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk has warned against the development of artificial intelligence (AI), declaring it the biggest existential threat there is.

Speaking to students at an event at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Musk shared the latest in a line of dramatic comments on technology today, telling those assembled: I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I were to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, its probably that.

The business magnate went on to describe artificial intelligence as summoning the demon, saying: In all those stories where theres the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, its like yeah hes sure he can control the demon. [But it] didnt work out.

Despite his role in some of the most leading-edge technological companies, including SpaceX, the first private company to have launched a spacecraft into orbit and bring it back to earth, along with the electric car company Tesla, the South African-born entrepreneur pleaded caution, saying: Im increasingly inclined to think that there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we dont do something very foolish.

Multi-millionaire Musk is one of the high-profile investors (alongside Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg) in the company dubbed Vicarious, which aims to build a computer with neural function to replicate that of a humans.

In June, Musk explained this investment as a move designed to merely help keep an eye on whats going on, as opposed to a potential return on capital.

Later this year, he echoed his concerns about artificial intelligence with a tweet warning: We need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes.

At this weeks event in Massachusetts, Musk also spoke about the importance of the colonisation of Mars. While travelling to Mars with singular missions was cool, he argued that the planets colonisation would be crucial to changing the future of humanity.

What matters is being able to establish a self-sustaining civilisation on Mars, and I dont see anything being done but SpaceX. I dont see anyone else even trying, said Musk.

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Poll: Are you scared of robots?

Colorado incentive package brings 500 new aerospace jobs to Lockheed Martin

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Lockheed Martin is pledging to create as many as 500 new high-paying aerospace jobs in Colorado over eight years in exchange for up to $15.5 million in state job-growth tax incentives.

The jobs, which carry an average annual salary of $113,000, are part of Lockheed's Commercial Space division, which moved to the company's Waterton Canyon campus in Jefferson County from Pennsylvania this year. The company is set to open a new commercial space operations center there Wednesday.

An artist's rendering of the Jabiru-1, a Lockheed Martin A2100-based satellite being built for Australia. Lockheed Martin's new operations center has the capability to serve as mission control for up to 50 orbiting satellites. (Lockheed Martin)

The Commercial Space division builds and manages Lockheed's commercial A2100 communications satellites and LM900 imaging satellites used for cellphones, TV and planetary imaging. Additionally, the new operations center has the capability to serve as mission control for up to 50 orbiting satellites.

"We're going to be doing hiring for positions that will support ongoing programs or new programs as we win them, so the incentive will help us as we look to build our workforce to meet the needs of the future," said division head Mike Hamel.

Bringing the commercial work to the same campus that also houses Lockheed's military space and civil interplanetary exploration missions such as the NASA Mars MAVEN mission and the NOAA GOES-R weather satellite allows Lockheed to cross-utilize its workforce for design, manufacturing and testing. That "one-stop shop" capability, along with the cost savings provided by the credits, gives the company and the state a competitive advantage when bidding on jobs, Hamel said.

"Our ability to compete against both U.S. manufacturers, as well as international manufacturers, depends on very short schedules and very price-competitive satellite development," Hamel said. "The more we can do to attract a high-quality, highly skilled workforce and to be very competitive from a price standpoint, is going to be critical."

The incentive package was approved in September by the Colorado Office of Economic Development under the cloaked name of " Project Blue." The secrecy was necessary while the company considered offers from other states, but Colorado won in the end, said Colorado OED director Ken Lund.

"We find in most industries that Colorado is very competitive from a cost standpoint, and we have a very highly educated workforce here," Lund said. "Companies are always monetizing the cost of doing business, and this incentive is going to moderate the cost of doing business."

Douglas Ray, left, and David Welch assemble a one-tenth scale model of the A2100 satellite in the lobby of the new Lockheed headquarters. (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post)

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Words related to Agnosticism – Urban Dictionary: Agnosticism

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The greatest set of 'beliefs' you can have. An Agnostic belives that there is no way of knowing if God exists or not. Unlike religious people, who are usually neither intelligent or open minded, or Atheists who are usually intelligent, but not usually open minded, an Agnostic is intelligent and open minded, smart enough not to be brain-washed into believing that there is a God who cannot be seen, but open minded to the idea that there may be one.

Most Christians will get very defensive if someone challenges that God exists, while some Atheists will treat every person who believes in God as if they are wrong, and there is no Gd and anyone who believes there is is stupid. Not all Atheists are like this, though.

A lot of Christians dislike Atheists and Agnostics because they have such a strong belief in God that they believe they know something for sure that no one can. What these people need to realise is that there is a very great gift that God, if there is one, gove us...free will. He gave us a brain which can think for itself and believe what it wants to...why wash it with things that some book or preacher say and make yourself believe it's the truth?

Atheist's response-You're stupid. There is no God. Religion was created by man, everything in The Bible is a lie.

Agnostic's respose-You have know way of knowing that for sure. There may be a God, there may not, we will only know for sure when we die.

Atheist-There is no God.

Religious nut-There is too! The Bible says so! You will go to hell for saying there's no God!

Atheist-You're stupid, there is no God, religion is a myth and was created by man.

Agnostic-There could be a God. It's not dumb to believe there is a God, it's not bad to believe there isn't one. Agnosticism is the best way to go!

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Words related to Agnosticism - Urban Dictionary: Agnosticism

Ignosticism – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Ignosticism or igtheism is the idea that every theological position assumes too much about the concept of God and other theological concepts; including (but not limited to) concepts of faith, spirituality, heaven, hell, afterlife, damnation, salvation, sin and the soul.

Ignosticism is the view that any religious term or theological concept presented must be accompanied by a coherent definition. Without a clear definition such terms cannot be meaningfully discussed. Such terms or concepts must also be falsifiable. Lacking this an ignostic takes the theological noncognitivist position that the existence or nature of the terms presented (and all matters of debate) is meaningless. For example, if the term "God" does not refer to anything reasonably defined then there is no conceivable method to test against the existence of god. Therefore the term "God" has no literal significance and need not be debated or discussed.

Some philosophers have seen ignosticism as a variation of agnosticism or atheism,[1] while others have considered it to be distinct.

Ignosticism and theological noncognitivism are generally synonymous,[2] but the relationship of ignosticism to other nontheistic views is less clear. While Paul Kurtz finds the view to be compatible with both weak atheism and agnosticism,[3] other philosophers consider ignosticism to be distinct.

The term ignosticism was coined in the 1960s by Sherwin Wine, a rabbi and a founding figure of Humanistic Judaism. The term igtheism was coined by the secular humanist Paul Kurtz in his 1992 book The New Skepticism.[4]

In a chapter of his 1936 book Language, Truth, and Logic, A. J. Ayer argued that one could not speak of God's existence, or even the probability of God's existence, since the concept itself was unverifiable and thus nonsensical.[5] Ayer wrote that this ruled out atheism and agnosticism as well as theism because all three positions assume that the sentence "God exists" is meaningful.[6] Given the meaninglessness of theistic claims, Ayer opined that there was "no logical ground for antagonism between religion and natural science",[7] as theism alone does not entail any propositions which the scientific method can falsify.

Like Ayer, Theodore Drange sees atheism and agnosticism as positions that accept "God exists" as a meaningful proposition: atheists judge it to be "false or probably false" while agnostics consider it to be inconclusive until further evidence is met.[8] If Drange's definitions are accepted, ignostics are neither atheists nor agnostics. A simplified maxim on the subject states "An atheist would say, 'I don't believe God exists'; an agnostic would say, 'I don't know whether or not God exists'; and an ignostic would say, 'I don't know what you mean when you say, "God exists".

Although often described as one of the New Atheists, Sam Harris has expressed frustration with the label and often employs ignostic arguments criticizing the ambiguous and inconsistent definitions of "God". Harris finds the label of atheism as extraneous as needing to label oneself a non-racist or a non-believer in Zeus.[9] In this sense, Harris finds debating about the existence of God to be both absurd and ascientific yet still an inconvenient necessity when speaking in defense of reason and science.

Ignosticism is not to be confused with apatheism, a position of apathy toward the existence of God. An apatheist may see the statement "God exists" as insignificant; yet they may also see it as having semantic value, and perhaps being true.[10]

Drange emphasizes that any stance on "Does God exist?" is made with respect to a particular concept of what one claims to consider "God" to represent:

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Ignosticism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

More Kids Harmed by Drinking in Pregnancy Than Expected, Study Reports

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By Tara Haelle HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Oct. 27, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Although drinking during pregnancy has long been considered taboo, new research suggests that as many as one in 20 U.S. children may have health or behavioral problems related to alcohol exposure before birth.

The study found that between 2.4 percent and 4.8 percent of children have some kind of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, or FASD.

"Knowing not to drink during pregnancy and not doing so are two different things," especially before a woman knows she is pregnant, said lead researcher Philip May, a professor of public health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He said the high prevalence of children affected by drinking during pregnancy may be due to social pressures or women's difficulty in changing their drinking habits.

Findings from the study were reported online Oct. 27 and in the November print issue of Pediatrics.

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders include fetal alcohol syndrome disorder plus other conditions that include some, but not all, of the characteristics of fetal alcohol syndrome, according to background information in the study.

Fetal alcohol syndrome is the most severe end of the spectrum, and children with this condition have abnormal facial features, structural brain abnormalities, growth problems and behavioral issues. Children on the less severe end of the spectrum may have impairments in the ability to complete tasks required to do well in school, or have behavioral issues, the study noted.

May and his colleagues selected a nationally representative town in the Midwest for the study. The town had an average annual alcohol consumption rate about 14 percent higher than the rest of the United States. That translated into roughly a liter of alcohol more per person per year, according to the study authors.

The town had 32 schools with a total of more than 2,000 first-graders. About 70 percent of the youngsters' parents allowed their children to participate in the study.

May's team identified first-graders who had a developmental problem or were below the 25th percentile for height, weight or head circumference. Then the researchers gave memory and thinking ("cognitive") tests, as well as behavioral tests, to these children and to a comparison group of typically developing first-graders.

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More Kids Harmed by Drinking in Pregnancy Than Expected, Study Reports

MD, PhD Elena Goltsova on The 2nd Aesthetic & Anti-aging Medicine European Congress, AMEC 2014 – Video

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MD, PhD Elena Goltsova on The 2nd Aesthetic Anti-aging Medicine European Congress, AMEC 2014
MD, PhD Elena Goltsova on The 2nd Aesthetic Anti-aging Medicine European Congress, AMEC 2014 / ..., NEO-Clinic ...

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NATO ends mission in Afghanistan's Helmand Province

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KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- NATO concluded its combat mission in Afghanistan's Helmand Province on Sunday, transferring responsibility of two bases and an airstrip to the Afghan military.

A ceremony was held at the Bastion-Leatherneck complex to mark the momentous occasion in the 13-year war and edging closer to NATO's full military withdrawal. American and British flags were lowered one final time.

"This is truly a historic day," said commander of the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson.

"Years of continuous combat, countless hours of sun-baked patrols and numerous casualties -- this day marks the end of the [coalition] mission here in southwest."

"It is with pride that we announce the end of UK combat operations in Helmand... Our Armed Forces' tremendous sacrifice laid the foundations for a strong Afghan Security Force, set the security context that enabled the first democratic transition of power in the country's history, and stopped it being a launch pad for terrorist attacks in the UK," remarked British Secretary of State for Defense Michael Fallon.

Afghan National Army Maj. Gen. Sayed Malouk, commander of the army's 215 Corps in central Helmand, expressed confidence in the ANA, noting "the ANA has already been conducting operations by themselves, in the battlefield, and no district has been taken over, no checkpoint has been taken over by the Taliban," adding, "We are ready."

2014 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

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U.S., NATO applaud Ukraine for holding successful parliamentary elections

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WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- The U.S. and NATO congratulated Ukraine for holding successful parliamentary elections on Sunday.

According to a preliminary assessment released by the OSCE's International Election Observatory Mission, the elections "were transparent and assessed positively overall."

The OSCE, U.S., and NATO recognized that unrest in Ukraine's eastern region and the illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula by Russia had impacted the ability of all Ukrainians to participate in Sunday's election.

"Despite a challenging security environment in certain regions, millions of Ukrainians turned out across the country to cast their ballots in an orderly and peaceful manner," President Barack Obama remarked Monday.

Secretary of State John Kerry applauded Kiev for its voter outreach to embattled areas, notably in Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk.

"Their hard work to provide for alternate voting arrangements, including for internally displaced persons, was a particularly laudable effort to overcome actions by Russian authorities occupying Crimea and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine to prevent voters from exercising their democratic rights."

Obama included a message intended for Moscow in his congratulatory statement:

"I call on Russia to ensure that its proxies in eastern Ukraine allow voters in the parts of Donetsk and Luhansk subject to the Special Status Law to choose their representatives in legitimate local elections on December 7, in keeping with the agreement that Russia and separatist representatives signed in Minsk, Belarus, on September 5, 2014."

NATO Secretary Genera Jens Stoltenberg applauded Ukrainians for embracing "an ambitious reform agenda and a European path. I welcome their determination to further promote an inclusive political process based on democratic values and respect for human rights, minorities and the rule of law."

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's bloc was the clear winner in Sunday's election, followed by Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk's People's Front. Both parties are pro-European and support further Ukranian integration with the European Union.

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NATO troops to march into Russia as peacekeepers?

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Sweden's recent obsessive search for a Russian submarine is an amusing story indeed. The Swedes could not see where the signal was coming from: it could be a Russian, a Dutch submarine or even divers. The performance has its director, though - NATO. Pravda.Ru interviewed the head of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems Konstantin Sivkov about the situation in the Stockholm Archipelago.

"As long as they have been looking for a strange object so persistently, it appears that there are serious reasons for that. Could it be our submarine indeed?"

"Technically, it could be anything. Technically, a Russian submarine may find itself both in the fjords of Sweden, and elsewhere in the world ocean. But practically, this is impossible. It goes about "Triton" submarine. This is a midget submarine designed for solving tasks in the vicinity of bases. To be used in remote areas, it should be transported on board a surface ship, as a rule, because its range and the time of autonomous work is not large.

"The duration of a typical anti-submarine search operation that NATO forces conduct makes up from three to five days. If they have not found anything there during this time, they are not likely to find anything then. The area of the possible location of the alleged submarine was small. Some reports said that it was discovered visually, other sources said that it was detected by radio-electronic equipment. The primary location of the submarine was indicated with high accuracy. If the sub was there indeed, it would be found within hours after the detection of an electronic signal.

Sweden has anti-submarine aircraft equipped with powerful sonar equipment and radio-acoustic buoys that can detect such a submarine. Therefore, if it was not found then it means that it was not there. Compare it with the recent detection of a state-of-the-art American submarine, Virginia tyoe, that was found in Russian territorial waters near Novaya Zemlya. Everything was very quickly established, proven and appropriate measures were taken.

All the talk about the Russian submarine in Swedish waters is based on NATO's intention to feverishly sculpt an enemy from Russia, to justify its existence. The attempt to create an enemy in the form of international terrorism has led to nothing.

No one believes that. Therefore, one should model a more real and more visible image of an enemy. The myth of existence of a Russian submarine in the area was intended to create an idea of Russia's highly aggressive behavior. This will allow the military to require additional funding, whereas political hawks will seek Sweden's entry into NATO."

"Are reconnaissance missions of submarines to territorial waters of other countries a common occurrence?"

"Of course, they are. The Americans do that regularly. Soviet and Russian submarines do that too, certainly. Yet, why would Russian submarines get into the territorial waters of neutral Sweden? There are more dangerous opponents."

"The Voice of Sweden said one could install special sensors in those fjords to record information and then use the fjords to shelter Russian submarines in an event of emergency. Could it be possible?"

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NATO troops to march into Russia as peacekeepers?

As Congress mulls reining in NSA phone records collection, attention turns to court challenges

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FILE - In this file image made from video released by WikiLeaks on Oct. 11, 2013, former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden speaks in Moscow. Faced with congressional inaction to curtail the NSA?s bulk collection of Americans? telephone records, civil liberties groups are looking to cases already in the courts as a quicker way to clarify just what surveillance powers the government should have. Three appeals courts are hearing challenges to the National Security Agency phone records program, creating the potential for an eventual Supreme Court review. Judges in lower courts are grappling with the admissibility of evidence gained through the NSA?s warrantless surveillance. The flurry of activity follows revelations last year by former contractor Edward Snowden of once-secret intelligence collection programs. (AP Photo, File)(The Associated Press)

WASHINGTON While Congress mulls how to curtail the NSA's collection of Americans' telephone records, impatient civil liberties groups are looking to legal challenges already underway in the courts to limit government surveillance powers.

Three appeals courts are hearing lawsuits against the bulk phone records program, creating the potential for an eventual Supreme Court review. Judges in lower courts, meanwhile, are grappling with the admissibility of evidence gained through the NSA's warrantless surveillance.

Advocates say the flurry of activity, which follows revelations last year by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden of once-secret intelligence programs, show how a post-9/11 surveillance debate once primarily hashed out among lawmakers in secret is being increasingly aired in open court not only in New York and Washington but in places like Idaho and Colorado.

"The thing that is different about the debate right now is that the courts are much more of a factor in it," said Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union. Before the Snowden disclosures, he said, courts were generally relegated to the sidelines of the discussion. Now, judges are poised to make major decisions on at least some of the matters in coming months.

Though it's unclear whether the Supreme Court will weigh in, the cases are proceeding at a time when the justices appear increasingly comfortable with digital privacy matters including GPS tracking of cars and police searches of cellphones.

The cases "come at a critical turning point for the Supreme Court when it comes to expectations of privacy and digital information," said American University law professor Stephen Vladeck.

Revelations that the government was collecting phone records of millions of Americans who were not suspected of crimes forced a rethinking of the practice, and President Barack Obama has called for it to end.

Since then, the House has passed legislation that civil libertarians say did not go far enough. In the Senate, Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, the Judiciary Committee chairman, is seeking a vote on a stricter measure to ban bulk collection, and it has bipartisan backing and support from the White House.

As Congress considers the matter, the federal judiciary has produced divided opinions.

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As Congress mulls reining in NSA phone records collection, attention turns to court challenges

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NSA surveillance challenges moving through courts

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This June 6, 213 file photo shows the sign outside the National Security Agency (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Md.

WASHINGTON While Congress mulls how to curtail the NSA's collection of Americans' telephone records, impatient civil liberties groups are looking to legal challenges already underway in the courts to limit government surveillance powers.

Three appeals courts are hearing lawsuits against the bulk phone records program, creating the potential for an eventual Supreme Court review. Judges in lower courts, meanwhile, are grappling with the admissibility of evidence gained through the NSA's warrantless surveillance.

Advocates say the flurry of activity, which follows revelations last year by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden of once-secret intelligence programs, show how a post-9/11 surveillance debate once primarily hashed out among lawmakers in secret is being increasingly aired in open court not only in New York and Washington but in places like Idaho and Colorado.

"The thing that is different about the debate right now is that the courts are much more of a factor in it," said Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union. Before the Snowden disclosures, he said, courts were generally relegated to the sidelines of the discussion. Now, judges are poised to make major decisions on at least some of the matters in coming months.

Though it's unclear whether the Supreme Court will weigh in, the cases are proceeding at a time when the justices appear increasingly comfortable with digital privacy matters including GPS tracking of cars and police searches of cellphones.

The cases "come at a critical turning point for the Supreme Court when it comes to expectations of privacy and digital information," said American University law professor Stephen Vladeck.

Revelations that the government was collecting phone records of millions of Americans who were not suspected of crimes forced a rethinking of the practice, and President Barack Obama has called for it to end.

Since then, the House has passed legislation that civil libertarians say did not go far enough. In the Senate, Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, the Judiciary Committee chairman, is seeking a vote on a stricter measure to ban bulk collection, and it has bipartisan backing and support from the White House.

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Comforting the NSA and Afflicting Its Dissenters

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No serious defense of the surveillance state can ignores its anti-democratic abuses, its lawbreaking, and its record of punishing whistleblowers.

Eddie Keogh/Reuters

In a New Republic article on NSA surveillance, Yishai Schwartz defends the U.S. government against the critiques of whistleblower Edward Snowden and his supporters. This defense warrants close scrutiny, because several of the arguments offered echo misinformation spread by national-security state officials.

The article begins by analyzing scenes in the Laura Poitras documentary Citizenfour where Snowden is holed up in a Hong Kong hotel, anxious that authorities might burst through the door and arrest him at any moment. "The implication is that Snowden has been targeted and persecuted by the government because he is a dissenter," Schwartz writes. "This is false. Snowden is a dissenter, but he is also a law-breaker. And the latter is the reason he has been targeted .... The government seeks to punish Snowden in order to make an example, but it is an example to future law-breakers (and in particular, those who expose classified information), not to deter future dissenters. Snowden happens to fit into both categories, but most dissenters do not, and they have nothing to fear."

Tell that to NSA whistleblower William Binney. In 2007, a dozen FBI agents stormed into his house with weapons drawn. "One of them ran upstairs and entered the bathroom where Mr. Binney was toweling off after a shower, pointing a gun at him," The New York Times reported. "Agents carried away a computer, disks and personal and business records .... Mr. Binney spent more than $7,000 on legal fees. But far more devastating, he said, was the N.S.A.s decision to strip his security clearance ... costing him an annual income of $300,000."

'What the War on Terror Actually Looks Like': Laura Poitras on Citizenfour

Or consider Thomas Drake, who was careful to avoid revealing classified information in correspondence with a reporter about NSA waste, fraud, and abuse. Jane Mayer documents the trumped-up charges used to persecute him and destroy his career. Or ponder Jesselyn Radack's story.

Is Schwartz unaware of these people? Surely he is at least familiar with Poitras, whose film he is reviewing. She committed no crimes when making documentaries about Iraq and Gitmo, yet wound up on a secret government watch list, subjecting her to harassment, interrogations, and equipment seizures. The claim that lawful dissenters "have nothing to fear" is demonstrably false.

* * *

A bit later in Schwartz's article, he objects to the argument that "our surveillance programs are unnecessary, that increases in government capabilities inherently infringe on our liberty, and warns ominously that dictatorships begin their oppression with the collection of data," countering that "surveillance is essential to countering threats from both terrorists and state espionage in the world today."

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Comforting the NSA and Afflicting Its Dissenters

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