I mean, the entire point of this project was to make a statement about mass surveillance and make the government feel uncomfortable about it.

You don't actually have to worry about "HN'ers setting up surveillance networks".

It's funny that you say that, because in fact if you look at the companies YC has ultimately birthed, the people that come through here... that's exactly what HN'ers have done. For ad-tech, for fun, for metrics, for AI companies, for the government and contractors.

Who do you think does all of this if not a bunch of people in the world of tech who mostly act as mercenaries?