Most likely it will be both (like the Nobel).

It is very curious to see the every foray by Chinese government become self-reliant on technology being portrayed as their desire for more surveillance. But if you look historically, China has actually been moving toward more openness while US and other Western countries are becoming more and more closed societies. Also after the passing of CISPA in the US House of Representatives recently, it can not even be argued that US government does not wish it had the kind of surveillance this article is suggesting.

Also please take look at IxMaps to see how the Internet traffic is being monitored by intelligence agencies.

There was an interview with Jacob Appelbaum in Democracy Now . He was asked about anonymity in Tor. It seems when the whole of the network is being continuously surveilled on, even Tor can not provide anonymity. So, be careful what you do even if you use Tor.

Can we equate the bomb threats in University of Pittsburgh as freedom of speech as there has not been actual bomb explosion? What would happen if a person or persons responsible for those threats are to be apprehended?

On top of that, 99.8% failure rate. We are looking at quite a long time before quantum network becomes even close to useful.

Ya Haq may be the only silver lining in this dark cloud of idea. An alternative to Google.

Now, THAT will turn anyone who was just beginning to think of doing counter-espionage for US off. Sad. Very sad.

The underlying assumption here is: "if people continue to consume the world's resources at the current pace.". When it comes to human behavior, such long term assumption may not valid especially since the problem is widely known among the people who care to look beyond the headlines. There are many smart people are working toward a steady state economy and sustainable future based on renewable energy. I am hopeful.

Censorship is for the 99%, not the 1% (on geek scale).

I am sure you are being sarcastic. But just look at the PCs. Are they not open architecture? Here, it is not about private enterprise, rather about hackers.

What made the Internet that it is right now is not the network itself, rather the PCs and small devices. So, to give DARPA all the credit to the success of the Internet is misguided. Without PCs and the WWW, I don't know where the Internet would be even now. Both of them were results of the works independent of DARPA. I would add public key cryptography to the list of technologies that propelled the Internet to the mainstream which was not sanctioned by the government.

I failed to see what living sustainable has anything to do with not participating in a fair associated with DARPA.

It seems Mitch Altman's decision to part ways seems to have really touched a nerve here at Slashdot. I wonder why?!!

Many people here give example of the Internet and GPS to justify DARPA. Below is a comment by Jeff Putney on Mitch Altman's Facebook page with which I tend to agree.

In the spirit suggested of talking about this. I don't think it's about not accepting DARPA work, lets be clear, the internet would have, in another form, existed without DARPA. To say otherwise would be like arguing physics wouldn't exist without a bunch of old overprivileged white guys.
We also have no idea what technology we have missed out on by pouring billions into things we simply blow up or use to kill people instead of focusing that work somewhere else(space exploration lets say).
For me I think it is also about not teaching kids that I am ok with participating in a system of power that can outwardly reflect values gravely different my own just because there are sufficient layers of encapsulation to make it possible for me to rationalize my participation.
I do think in one way or another we all participate in the military industrial complex in ways that are unavoidable(taxes) or in ways that are almost impossible to notice, but when there are things I can notice and change, I want to, and I want to make some noise about. So thank you Mitch for being awesome about this.
--You can't be neutral on a moving train--

Just because something happened does not mean that was the only probable outcome. Lets keep our minds open to every possible course of action the past could have taken and the present can take.

Remember, USA is still under the state of emergency. Almost everything is legal while in the state of emergency.

  CONTINUATION OF THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY WITH RESPECT TO CERTAIN TERRORIST ATTACKS

Because the terrorist threat continues, the national emergency declared on September 14, 2001, and the powers and authorities adopted to deal with that emergency must continue in effect beyond September 14, 2011. Therefore, I am continuing in effect for an additional year the national emergency that was declared on September 14, 2001, with respect to the terrorist threat.