… driven by the acceleration of computing power and connectivity and the simultaneous development of surveillance systems and tracking technologies, we are approaching a theoretical state of absolute informational transparency, one in which "Orwellian" scrutiny is no longer a strictly hierarchical, top-down activity, but to some extent a democratized one. As individuals steadily lose degrees of privacy, so, too, do corporations and states. Loss of traditional privacies may seem in the short term to be driven by issues of national security, but this may prove in time to have been intrinsic to the nature of ubiquitous information. [William Gibson: The Road to Oceania.]
Jason Kottke zitiert aus demselben Artikel:
This is something I would bring to the attention of every diplomat, politician and corporate leader: the future, eventually, will find you out. The future, wielding unimaginable tools of transparency, will have its way with you. In the end, you will be seen to have done that which you did.
Konziser als Gibson kann man kaum sagen, was es bedeutet, dass potentiell jede Kommunikation beobachtet werden kann. Konziser kann man auch die Ambivalenz der Öffentlichkeit im Web nicht charakterisieren. Es wird Zeit, endlich Pattern Recognition zu lesen!