Re: Privacy now and in the future, was Re: Civilization and Enemies, was Re: CONFESSIONS OF A CHEERFUL LIBERTARIAN By David Brin

From: Michael M. Butler (butler@comp-lib.org)
Date: Sun Dec 03 2000 - 13:56:17 MST


"J. R. Molloy" wrote:

> > More people should adopt technology more mindfully than they seem to, I
> > think--but I don't know how to do that for anyone other than myself, and
> > I don't have a perfect track record by any means.
>
> So privacy issues are rather personal, and not to be distributed too
> widely.

You lost me there, chief. I mean I can't dictate anything beyond whether
my own arms should reach out for another mouthful of popcorn, that sort
of thing.

> > Some people boggle to discover that many Plain Folk in Pennsylvania have
> > cell phones. This is because they think the Amish are luddites, when
> > they are not. They are, however, very selective about the technologies
> > they adopt. More power to that, say I.
>
> I saw a documentary on PBS about the Amish. They don't let their kids go
> beyond the eighth grade, because it might tempt them to discard literal
> belief in the Bible. (They believe the Earth is flat, because the Bible
> mentions "the four corners of the Earth").

I said Plain Folk, and then I said Amish. This was an attempt at noun
diversity. I am not sure all Plain Folk agree with both those points. In
any event (along the lines of the rather plonking adage that a stopped
clock is still right twice a day), I stand by my notion that picking the
technology you choose to adopt is a good thing, even if an occasional
Betamax or HDTV or Gene Z45678 doesn't get off the ground.

> > I think secluded glens off the information superhighway are a fine idea,
> > even if some of them have razor wire around them. If you can keep 'em.
>
> Yeah, those are very secure places. I think they're called "prisons" and
> "penitentiaries"

I thought they were called "Joe's Pick-N-Pay Wrecking". Watch out for
the dog.



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