Rogue Analyst

Well, I've been busy, but I found this following article today through the KurzweilAI.net newsletter at Economist.com | Economics focus. It appears that the digital divide is shrinking, not growing. This confirms a 'feeling' I've had for a while, and a train of thought and research that I've been developing for the past two years. I am currently reading Amazon.com: The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom?: Explore similar items: " The Transparent Society " by David Brin. I haven't finished reading his book, yet, and I may find this comment to be incorrect when I do, but I can't resist making it. So far, it appears then Brin's argument is that we should make the 'policy choice' to use technology to 'watch the watchers'. He apparently recognizes, as Reg Whitaker does in "The End of Privacy: How Total Surveillance Is Becoming a Reality", that privacy is a thing of the past. Technology has provided the means for the state, corporations and the wealthy to monitor virtually anything they like. Brin wants a formal policy where in all of the information from cameras that watch us, are open to the average citizen to also watch. And further, that we put camera's in police stations and the like to watch the people watching us. And, I totally agree with him so far. The point where I appear to differ with him (again, he may address this later in the book), is that I believe it is inevitable. I do not believe the government and elites will be able to buy privacy in the future, anymore then the average citizen will.

I will come back, and fill out this argument later. Also, as soon as I figure out how to access my web space at my ISP, I will post a link to a paper on secrecy and transportation that I wrote last spring. Now, back to news scanning and job hunting...