On Thu, 18 Jul 2002, Deborah Harrell wrote: > In _The Transparent Society_ Brin 'foresees' two > cities, both with cameras everywhere, but in one it is > only the police and 'Establishment' who have final > oversight, while in the other, any citizen can access > any camera - rendering the government accountable for > its actions. (So those citizens aren't really spies as > much as eyes, gossipy and potentially overzealous, > perhaps, but they too are accountable.)
I loved that book, but I'm troubled by what strikes me as an omission...I find it hard to believe that in a culture with ubiquitous cameras there would not an elite merchandise of countermeasures available to the very rich and employed by the state for the sake of "national security" and by the rich simply because they can afford it. I'd be stunned by any state that didn't erect barriers to observation for the sake of its agents and dominant political parties. Everyone can be seers, but there would still be a class of the unseen. Marvin Long Austin, Texas There ain't no Devil; there's just God when he's drunk. -- Tom Waits
