Hoping For a "V"

Sadly, I have not gotten to read Transparent Society - we don't have it at the library, and currently I am mere pages from finishing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, so I don't think I would've gotten through it in time for this post anyway. I did however go to his site, though I could only get through the first page before trying to decide between taking a cyanide pill now, or letting the government take me out when I try to run.

Though we may live in a society where technology puts some power in the hands of the people, what do we use it for? To post stuff like this. While it's useful for embarrassing celebrities or holding politicians responsible for off-color remarks, what good has it really done? You could argue that blogs are the ultimate weapon of the people - a chance for us to share ideas and rally around them, but I know what crap I write about. And even if we were in such a dystopian society, why would we even still have the internet? A lot of countries right now restrict what their citizens can gain access to - imagine if it were worse.

As far as a 1984 Orwellian government - I'd have to agree that we're closer to something like that happening. Wasn't Winston's job in the book to go back through and rewrite newspaper articles and historical documents to fit it to the present - like the war that keeps changing enemies - sound a little familiar? Now, I'm sure there's not an administration that couldn't be accused of a little spin, but the fact that a war with Afghanistan quickly turned into a war with Iraq, which looked like it would turn into a war with Iran or Syria - it's ridiculous! Wire-tapping, raising themselves above the Constitution - it's scary to think about.

Switching gears (well, sort of), has anyone else seen Minority Report? I actually kinda liked it when it came out, but Tom Cruise is all kinds of scary crazy now, and it angers me a little to watch his movies. Short synopsis for anyone who hasn't seen it - it's the future, and TC works for a section of the government called precrime. There were triplets born who could see the future, so the government captured them and used them to predict future crimes. TC's job was to take the flashes of info and decipher them, hopefully in time to stop the crime from ever happening. (Yeah - how much would that suck? Getting jailed for a crime you didn't even have a chance to commit.) One day, while doing his job, TC gets a flash, and he's in it, so he goes on the run - there's more, but that's the basic scenario. But that is my ultimate horrifying glimpse of the future - that and V for Vendetta - oh and Children of Men. (Hopefully if that is indeed the future, we'll have a V as well)

A Transparent Society?

I'm currently reading a book written by science fiction author David Brin... but it's non-fiction. It's called The Transparent Society, and it was originally published in 1998. Now, there are quite a few things about this book that are just a little bit freaky... one of which is how it came to be in my possession. A friend of Gwen's gave her this book when she was in college in Alabama. She brought it to Korea and lent it to me. Now that in and of itself is not freaky whatsoever. What is freaky is that inside the front cover is taped a Lake City Community College Library decal! The friend who gave it to Gwen was not from Lake City. Weird huh? Okay, so his grandparents live in Wellborn, so perhaps they stole it from the LCCC library? Anyhoo, now that we've satisfied the LC-centric portion of this blog, let's move on to what's really freaky about this book: the fact that it was published in 1998, meaning that the bulk of it was probably written in 1997.

Now, while I admit that the bulk of 1997-1998 is rather a blur for me.... but one thing that I do clearly recollect is that 1997 was the year when I initially became addicted to the Internet. I don't know how much you remember about late 90s internet, but it was slow ass, lacking in flash, animated clip art and geocities homes sites were the rage, and there was no wikipedia, no YouTube, and the word blog hadn't yet been invented. Then there's this book, The Transparent Society, written way back then.

I'm assuming none of you out there other than Gwen has read this book (although if you have - yay!), so let me do a very brief summary for you. Brin's theory is that technology will influence the evolution of society in one of two ways:

Choice A: Think 1984 - omnipresent government with cameras and computers spying on your every move. Freedom is essentially lost because the government is everywhere, seeing everything you do. Crime diminishes (who wants to go to prison?) although who knows what crimes the government is committing!

Choice B: The citizens take matters - and technology - into their own hands. Everyone owns a digital camera, has an internet connection, and monitors everyone else - and shares what they know. Crime diminishes (who wants their dirty secrets published on the web?) and government becomes incredibly more transparent because the masses are always watching.

This is obviously an incredibly simplistic analysis of The Transparent Society, but there's a lot more on Brin's website if this sort of thing interests you. Just give a thought to recent events that wouldn't have made a splash at all had it not been for some Johnny-on-the-spot with a camera and a YouTube account, such as the Macaca Moment and Bomb Bomb Iran (among many others) and you'll realize that we are well on our way down the path of Choice B.

In line with that theme, later tonight (your time - it'll be sometime tomorrow morning here in Korea) CNN and YouTube will sponsor a Democratic debate unlike any other (and it'll be followed by it's Republican counterpart in September). I'm totally bummed that I won't be able to watch it live - although I rather suspect that I'll be able to download it. For this debate, YouTubers create video questions for the candidates (there are almost 3000 of them, and you can view them here), and CNN will select however many of those questions for use in the debate.

So... things to write about this week (and I'll give you some choices) - What do you think about Brin's theories on transparency and where technology is taking us? Or about YouTube and its impact on politics? The CNN/YouTube debate? (Especially any of you cats who got to watch it!) And, if those topics don't do anything for you, feel free to let me know if you know of any creepy precognitive books/movies. Other than The Transparent Society, the only other thing I can think of is those movies Glenn, Matt and Jordan made in which I was Special Agent Keeler. Who'd'a thunk that would actually happen?