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You're with David Brin's side as far as the secrecy issue goes, aren't you? It's definitely intriguing response to the traditional cypherpunk response of more secrecy- if you can watch the watchers right back, then the governments and corporations in the world are as vulnerable to surveillance as John Q. Public.



David Brin's position is incredibly naive.

The rich and powerful can always buy themselves privacy and security. The rest of us won't have that luxury in such a "transparent society".


This is a good argument but not a definitive one. For example, if "sousveillance" is pervasive, the wealth and power of the few might be balanced by the number of people watching on them.


I may be wrong but this and GP seem to assume that watching / surveillance will always yield some power over others. This seems untrue especially if lots of other people can see the same feeds too.

So mostly it's going to be social structures and conventions affected.




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