Big Brother is your Friend

JTek writes "Wired News has a story about sci-fi writer David Brin's idea of surveillance being everywhere, and why this is a good thing. The article raises interesting points about privacy vs. accountability. Very interesting read. "

Brin's ideas are interesting (he wrote a book about this recently, for those truly curious), but the point where he loses me is when he thinks that the rich, powerful and/or famous are somehow going to let the cameras into THEIR lives. I think the result of pursuing Brin's "Utopia" is that all the po' folk will get put on camera and then when they say to the rich, "Okay, now it's your turn", all you'll hear is laughter. GIVEN that the rich ARE NOT going to end up on camera, the sensible thing is to lessen the information gap by opposing putting the poor on camera either.

I can add a neat link, too: Surveillance cameras in New York City, or some of them anyway, courtesy of the New York Civil Liberties Union. Oh, and if you truly want to see what Brin's future looks like, I highly recommend Lacey and His Friends, by David Drake. That's the real outcome of the growing trend toward the surveillance society, and it's not Utopia - it's Dystopia. Jamie adds: Another sci-fi book that deals with ever-present cameras is The Truth Machine. -- michael