From: Charlie Stross (charlie@antipope.org)
Date: Fri Mar 10 2000 - 03:01:30 MST
On Fri, Mar 10, 2000 at 01:23:36AM -0800, Eugene Leitl wrote:
>
> No way. Especially because Pandora's nano box will be opened before
> BigBrother++ can be installed, and will blow away all high hopes of
> anal-retentive control freaks.
Ahem: Big Brother is being installed right now, as I type, in
this very country -- the UK. Want a legislative framework? See
http://www.stand.org.uk/ for the full gory details. Want cameras on
every streetcorner? The British government is installing something like
a thousand public CCTV cameras *a week*, while in many high streets it's
impossible to get planning permission to open a shop unless you agree to
install CCTV surveillance (and make it available to the cops, of course).
Meanwhile, we have a legislative stampede to ban evil -- on the grounds
that Something Must Be Done, and the way to do it is to Pass A Law.
The intersection of an over-legislated society with omnipresent
surveillance is not a pretty prospect -- imagine the methods of the War
On Drugs extended to cover equally jaywalking, illicit parking in disabled
parking spaces, tax evasion, wilfully uttering obscenities in public, bank
robbery, allowing a dog to foul the sidewalk, rape, and sexual harassment
(eyeballing an attractive member of the appropriate sex while in public).
We have the technology, and we have the excuses. Be afraid: be very afraid.
-- Charlie
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