From Cory.
Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2007 16:25:19 -0700
From: Cory Doctorow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.0 (X11/20070326)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Forbes just put together an excellent package on the 21st century city,
including my editorial about the future of urban surveillance, called
"Snitchtown":
> The key to living in a city and peacefully co-existing as a
social animal in tight quarters is to set a delicate balance of
seeing and not seeing. You take care not to step on the heels of
the woman in front of you on the way out of the subway, and you
might take passing note of her most excellent handbag. But you
don't make eye contact and exchange a nod. Or even if you do, you
make sure that it's as fleeting as it can be.
>
> Checking your mirrors is good practice even in stopped traffic,
but staring and pointing at the schmuck next to you who's got his
finger so far up his nostril he's in danger of lobotomizing himself
is bad form--worse form that picking your nose, even.
>
> I once asked a Japanese friend to explain why so many people on
the Tokyo subway wore surgical masks. Are they extreme germophobes?
Conscientious folks getting over a cold? Oh, yes, he said, yes, of
course, but that's only the rubric. The real reason to wear the
mask is to spare others the discomfort of seeing your facial
expression, to make your face into a disengaged, unreadable
blank--to spare others the discomfort of firing up their mirror
neurons in order to model your mood based on your outward
expression. To make it possible to see without seeing.
Snitchtown:
http://www.forbes.com/2007/06/11/urban-surveillance-security-biz-21cities_cx_cd_0611futurecity.html
Forbes on the future of cities:
http://www.forbes.com/2007/06/11/future-cities-urbanization-biz-21cities_cx_mn_de_0611cities_land.html
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((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
