From: Zero Powers (zero_powers@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Aug 13 2001 - 23:24:05 MDT
>From: KPJ <kpj@sics.se>
>It appears as if Spike Jones <spike66@attglobal.net> wrote:
>|Transparency is another issue like racism: emotions run high,
>|and our instinct is to a definite "Danger Will Robinson" since it
>|could be used as a tool for totalitarianism. {8-] spike
>
>I agree.
>
>Personally, I don't like "transparency" (the phenomenon of various
>busy-bodies having a permanent field day, looking over all shoulders
>at all times). Thank you, but no, thank you.
>
>My life is my own.
>Mine, and mine alone.
>
>I will not be pushed,
>filed, stamped, indexed,
>briefed, debriefed or numbered.
You already have been, and it don't hurt so bad, does it? You are a number
(actually several of them: driver's license, SSN, health insurance policy
number). In fact every business with whom you have any sort of account
(utilities, credit cards, mortgage, student loans) has numbered you, indexed
you and most likely cross-referenced you with other databases in which you
are little more than a number.
People reflexively say they don't want their personal information available
for public perusal. The fact of the matter is that given any two of the
following pieces of data about you, any of the others can readily be
obtained if you know where to look and are willing to pay for it: birthdate,
name, address, telephone number, social security number, driver's license
number.
Individuals, as much as they hate to believe it, already are about as
transparent as they can be. The only "persons" who enjoy any semblance of
real privacy anymore are corporate and government institutions. That is why
transparency will be more of a benefit than a detriment to individuals. But
I am a patient man. Eventually the value of transparency will make itself
known and, although I'm not the type to say "I told you so," you'll know
I'll be thinking it ;)
-Zero
"I'm a seeker too. But my dreams aren't like yours. I can't help thinking
that somewhere in the universe there has to be something better than man.
Has to be." -- George Taylor _Planet of the Apes_ (1968)
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