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Computer-mediated transparency have a modern perspective on societal change. Transparency within a wider perspective of broad trends in society. “The Transparent Society” is full of such provocative and far-reaching analysis.The inescapable rush of technology is forcing us to make new choices about how we want to live. This daring book reminds us that an open society is more robust and flexible than one where secrecy reigns.
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In New York and Baltimore, police cameras scan public areas twenty-four hours a day. Huge commercial databases track your finances and sell that information to anyone willing to pay. Host sites on the World Wide Web record every page you view, and “smart” toll roads know where you drive. Every day, new technology nibbles at our privacy. Does that make you nervous?
David Bri...more
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Published May 7th 1999 by Basic Books (first published 1998)
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Rating: 4.5* of five
David Brin LIKES my review! *complete fanboy SQUEEEEEEEE*
The Publisher Says: �In New York and Baltimore, police cameras scan public areas twenty-four hours a day.
�Huge commercial databases track you finances and sell that information to anyone willing to pay.
�Host sites on the World Wide Web record every page you view, and 'smart” toll roads know where you drive.
Every day, new technology nibbles at our privacy.Does that make you nervous? David Brin is worried, but not ju...more
David Brin LIKES my review! *complete fanboy SQUEEEEEEEE*
The Publisher Says: �In New York and Baltimore, police cameras scan public areas twenty-four hours a day.
�Huge commercial databases track you finances and sell that information to anyone willing to pay.
�Host sites on the World Wide Web record every page you view, and 'smart” toll roads know where you drive.
Every day, new technology nibbles at our privacy.Does that make you nervous? David Brin is worried, but not ju...more
This may be a 4-star book, but I was tempted to give it 5 stars just for David Brin himself. It's not quite as rare as one might think to have pretty good ideas and opinions about things, as David Brin does. What's especially rare, that David Brin has, is to not just be smart about things, but to *not be a dick about it*. Even if you don't care about privacy, even if you don't think it's worth your time to read a book about the internet from the time before the internet was really the internet,...more
Apr 10, 2015Mark rated it it was ok
This book needs to be prefaced with the caveat that it was written over 17 years ago now - published prior to 9-11, pre-Snowden, and therefore many of its optimistic disclaimers as to the trust citizens can place in a government not to abuse its possible powers have been proven false, and indeed, are still very much to worry over. Brin's chirpy optimism that a correlative 'transparent society' where 'the watchers themselves get watched' is disingenuous since any watcher will go to greater and gr...more
David Brin would make any shortlist of my favorite public intellectuals. He is a man of many quirks, a loquacious contrarian fond of bizarrely placed punctuation and enthusiastic but sometimes strained prose. Those qualities, which so often show up in personalities that grate the ear and bore the mind, somehow come together in Brin with a kind of obnoxious harmony, one that taunts readers almost as much as it seduces them.
The Transparent Society is Brin's only nonfiction book, and while it is t...more
Sep 06, 2017Mark Oppenlander rated it liked it · review of another editionThe Transparent Society is Brin's only nonfiction book, and while it is t...more
Shelves: anthropology-sociology, politics, popular-science, current-affairs
In a society where technology has made it possible to track nearly every action of nearly every citizen, is there any place left for privacy? Or is privacy a myth? And are there things more important than privacy? Noted science fiction author, futurist and scientist David Brin tackled these questions in this 1998 book. Some recent reviewers have commented on the fact that Brin's ideas and argument have been outpaced by changes in technology and news headlines (e.g. Edward Snowden) over the past...more
Jan 01, 2009Alsha rated it liked it · review of another edition
A very interesting premise, and from a point of view I hadn't considered before, but ultimately it didn't need to be as long as it was. The structure of the book was basically a central idea which then got poked by a stick from a dozen different angles.
Three stars for changing the way I think... and for proving how very far technology has come even since 1998!! Brin's summary of the functions and capabilities of the Internet are no end of amusing: 'you can even play [text-based:] RPGs involving...more
Three stars for changing the way I think... and for proving how very far technology has come even since 1998!! Brin's summary of the functions and capabilities of the Internet are no end of amusing: 'you can even play [text-based:] RPGs involving...more
n this non-fiction book, talented science fiction author David Brin (the Uplift series) makes a long and rambling case for a transparent society being the only way to prevent government and private entities from abusing new and existing surveillance technologies. I disagree. When government and/or public opinion outlaw a legitimate practice, all the transparency in the world, two-way or not, will not help. For example, what about China's one child per family policy, enforced with forced abortion...more
Sep 25, 2010Mark Ballinger rated it liked it
A not bad book, but sadly outdated by history since 1998. The idea is that a society where openness rules, but from the government to the people and people to government, is a society trending toward justice. This book could use an update!
'but the real impulse to force them open may only come after some band of terrorists manages to kill thousands with a gas attack, or blow up a skyscraper, or poison a reservoir, or 'dust' a city with radionuclides (sic). When this happens, many will call for dr...more
'but the real impulse to force them open may only come after some band of terrorists manages to kill thousands with a gas attack, or blow up a skyscraper, or poison a reservoir, or 'dust' a city with radionuclides (sic). When this happens, many will call for dr...more
It's dated--20 years dated as a matter of fact. But, this book is a prophetic read of how a brilliant writer has correctly predicted the future of how technology can be used. Mr. Brin's extensive vocabulary and unique writing style makes this book a difficult read at times but well worth the effort. If you skim through a paragraph and realize you haven't a clue as to what was just discussed, go back and read it again-slower. Mr. Brin does not attempt to force a single view on the reader. The boo...more
This book changed the way I thought about privacy a lot and was generally pretty interesting throughout.
Jul 23, 2017Peter Tillman rated it really liked it
Well thought out & well-written. Nice!
Oct 11, 2017K.R. Baucherel rated it it was amazing
Visionary, and incredibly relevant as encryption begins to fail and we have to turn back to trust and transparency.
Sep 22, 2012Matthew Aujla rated it really liked it
David Brin’s The Transparent Society lays out the hypothesis that freedom can only be ensured through accountability, derived from openness and criticism, of those in power (i.e., governments, MNCs, “management,” etc…). As we enter the information age, new technologies provide increasingly powerful tools for openness. Despite our desire to selectively endorse, to ensure accountability, and constrain, in light of privacy concerns, these tools through regulation or censorship of information, inevi...more
May 18, 2010Michael rated it liked it
In The Transparent Society (1998), David Brin overviews various threats to our privacy in an age with increasing information technologies and proposes a policy of open reciprocity transparency. Arguing against 'strong privacy' advocates who oppose a transparent society (20), Brin argues that 'reciprocal transparency' may be our best hope to enhance and preserve a little privacy in the next century' (55). He explores the various threats to privacy, most of which are surveillance (cameras, sensor...more
Oct 01, 2008Jenny rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites
A great thought experiment on the antithesis of the idea that privacy is sacred. Even if the book doesn't change your mind about the right to privacy (What is privacy? Is it the ideal?) it will at least make you think about it. This book is one that consistently informs my outlook on the world and society.
I would give this 5 stars except that the last few chapters lose their focus a bit. I got most information from the first 50-60% of the book, and the rest didn't really add much. Update: I gave...more
I would give this 5 stars except that the last few chapters lose their focus a bit. I got most information from the first 50-60% of the book, and the rest didn't really add much. Update: I gave...more
May 10, 2014Dave Peticolas rated it really liked it
What I love about David Brin is his optimism. He reminds us that, although things are far from perfect, they are much better now than in the past, thanks in large part to democracy and pragmatic empiricism.
In this book, Brin takes on the 'cypherpunk' credo that privacy and anonymity, as provided by the modern tools of encryption, are the keys to our freedom. Brin question not only the feasibility of obtaining true anonymity, but also whether we should want it at all. His main argument is that de
...moreRead this as a required text for a graduate course on Information Policy, and liked it so much I ended up reading the whole thing, not just the required chapters. It is very refreshing to see a book approach the concerns of an increasingly interconnected society with something other than brackish paranoia or blithering optimism. In fact, to put it succinctly, the book is really about eliminating false binaries commonly held in regards to surveillance technology and increasingly sophisticated met...more
Dec 03, 2016Ben Stack rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Brin is an exceptional futurist
This was written more than 20 years ago. I had to reminding myself of that because he predicted the impact of niche media via the internet, mass surveillance, proliferation of massively powerful internet connected devices i.e. smart phones.
What is good is very well thought pros cons impacts of privacy,government and transparency. It really made me think about these issues deeply and consider impacts I had not.
Sadly we have already tipped the scale away from our p...more
This was written more than 20 years ago. I had to reminding myself of that because he predicted the impact of niche media via the internet, mass surveillance, proliferation of massively powerful internet connected devices i.e. smart phones.
What is good is very well thought pros cons impacts of privacy,government and transparency. It really made me think about these issues deeply and consider impacts I had not.
Sadly we have already tipped the scale away from our p...more
Apr 11, 2010David rated it liked it
Although a few years old, the issues described in this book have only become more pressing. Brin's premise is an interesting one: preserving privacy is going to become almost impossible, so our only recourse is to make sure that we know who's watching us and hold them accountable. In other words, we must be able to watch the watchers. I'm not sure he's entirely correct that we can't protect our privacy, but I think his argument that we should have reciprocal transparency is a good one (although...more
Reading this book convinced me that this debate about privacy and accountability is among the most critical questions we need to be answering now in order to preserve what maintains our remaining freedom. Brin's discourse is clear and thoughtful. What I most appreciate is his consistently balanced approach, capped only at the very end with a strong stance of his own. The only thing this book needs is an update. Written in 1999, it anticipated the evolution of the web, but I'm sure the technology...more
Aug 29, 2012Brian rated it it was amazing
I will admit that this book took me a very long time to finish but that is because of how dense I found this book and how much I have found myself invested in its arguments and positions. Even with sixteen years between its publication and now the concerns discussed are highly prescient in this post-9/11, post-Enron, post-Snowden world.
The book points out that we rail at government and corporate secrecy but we do so from opposite societal ends without realizing that these ends actually share a...more
The book points out that we rail at government and corporate secrecy but we do so from opposite societal ends without realizing that these ends actually share a...more
Jul 27, 2012David Hill rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Transparency has been the great engine of science, markets, and democracy. Brin discusses how technology may affect society with regards to privacy, secrecy, and anonymity, the possible ways powerful oligarchies may shift power using surveillance, and how transparency might (should? will?) be the great equalizer.
The book was written before Google and Facebook and Twitter, before 9/11, before every cell phone had a camera and GPS. I was concerned that the book would be dated but the concepts are...more
The book was written before Google and Facebook and Twitter, before 9/11, before every cell phone had a camera and GPS. I was concerned that the book would be dated but the concepts are...more
Dec 27, 2007David rated it liked it
Brin has an interesting thesis: that the technology for privacy invasion has become pervasive, and that the important thing now is not to try to reclaim personal secrecy, but to embrace the technology enough to make it possible to watch the watchers. This book came out in 1998, and I read it in either 1999 or 2000; it would be interesting to read it again now after the experiences of the intervening years. I think I might find the thesis more compelling now than when I first read the book.
Apr 14, 2008Patrick rated it liked it
There is no turning back ... but where are we really going? Being old, I have seen most prognostications of the future wrong. We are, however, moving to more efficiency in natural resource use with stuttering progress in moving towards replenishable balance with the resources of earth. Global warming is the wakeup call, but world financial stability is the deciding one - money always speaks loudest. (There, I have prognosticated).
Godd read. Brin is brilliant.
Godd read. Brin is brilliant.
Jun 14, 2012Shiri rated it it was amazing
'Brin brings a smart and well-composed treatise on transparency, privacy and freedom in an increasingly technological/pervasive age. Written in the 90s, not all his predictions have come to pass - yet - but others were remarkably precise. Whether you value privacy or freedom more, this book (while relatively long) is worth it.
I enjoyed some of David's science fiction so I thought I would give his non fiction a try. Honestly I could not finish the book. If there's a point he's trying to make he approaches it pretty circuitously. I got through several chapters and felt they could have been written in two paragraphs. If you're impatient this is not the book for you.
Written as a corrective to all the anarcho-libertarian crypto stuff that was so terribly fashionable at the close of the 20th Century. Worthwhile and provocative if you're into this kind of stuff, but somewhat condescending. Also: way too many exclamation points.
Gotta give stars to any book that quotes me! As usual, David digs deep into the impact of technology. Very thought-provoking.
Great book about two ways to view the age of surveillance.
Mar 09, 2015Chris rated it it was ok
Brin does not understand power.
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David Brin is a scientist, speaker, and world-known author. His novels have been New York Times Bestsellers, winning multiple Hugo, Nebula and other awards. At least a dozen have been translated into more than twenty languages.
Existence, his latest novel, offers an unusual scenario for first contact. His ecological thriller, Earth, foreshadowed global warming, cyberwarfare and near-future trends...more
Existence, his latest novel, offers an unusual scenario for first contact. His ecological thriller, Earth, foreshadowed global warming, cyberwarfare and near-future trends...more
“Every time humans discovered a new resource, or technique for using mass and energy, one side effect has always been pollution. Why should the information age be any different from those of coal, petroleum, or the atom?” — 2 likes
“First they came for the hackers. But I never did anything illegal with my computer, so I didn’t speak up. Then they came for the pornographers. But I thought there was too much smut on the Internet anyway, so I didn’t speak up. Then they came for the anonymous remailers. But a lot of nasty stuff gets sent from anon.penet.fi, so I didn’t speak up. Then they came for the encryption users. But I could never figure out how to work PGP anyway, so I didn’t speak up. Then they came for me. And by that time there was no one left to speak up. WIDELY COPIED INTERNET APHORISM, A PARAPHRASE OF PROTESTANT MINISTER MARTIN NIEMOLLER‘S STATEMENT ABOUT LIFE IN NAZI GERMANY” — 1 likes
More quotes…Author | David Brin |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre | Non-fiction |
Publisher | Perseus Books |
Publication date | May 17, 1998 |
Media type | Hardback & Paperback |
Pages | 384 pp (1st edition) |
ISBN | 0-7382-0144-8 |
OCLC | 41433013 |
323.44/8 21 | |
LC Class | JC598 .B75 1998b |
The Transparent Society (1998) is a non-fiction book by the science-fiction author David Brin in which he forecasts social transparency and some degree of erosion of privacy, as it is overtaken by low-cost surveillance, communication and database technology, and proposes new institutions and practices that he believes would provide benefits that would more than compensate for lost privacy. The work first appeared as a magazine article by Brin in Wired in late 1996.[1] In 2008, security expert Bruce Schneier called the transparent society concept a 'myth'[2] (a characterization Brin later rejected),[3] claiming it ignores wide differences in the relative power of those who access information.[2]
- 6External links
Synopsis[edit]
David Brin with sousveillance 'maybecamera' at the Association of Computing Machinery's (ACM's) CFP conference where such a sousveillance device was given to each attendee.
Brin argues that a core level of privacy—protecting our most intimate interactions—may be preserved, despite the rapid proliferation of cameras that become ever-smaller, cheaper and more numerous faster than Moore's law. He feels that this core privacy can be saved simply because that is what humans deeply need and want. Hence, Brin explains that '...the key question is whether citizens will be potent, sovereign and knowing enough to enforce this deeply human want.'
This means they must not only have rights, but also the power to use them and the ability to detect when they are being abused. That will only happen in a world that is mostly open, in which most citizens know most of what is going on, most of the time. It is the only condition under which citizens may have some chance of catching the violators of their freedom and privacy. Privacy is only possible if freedom (including the freedom to know) is protected first.
Brin thus maintains that privacy is a 'contingent right,' one that grows out of the more primary rights, e.g. to know and to speak. He admits that such a mostly-open world will seem more irksome and demanding; people will be expected to keep negotiating the tradeoffs between knowing and privacy. It will be tempting to pass laws that restrict the power of surveillance to authorities, entrusting them to protect our privacy—or a comforting illusion of privacy. By contrast, a transparent society destroys that illusion by offering everyone access to the vast majority of information out there.
Brin argues that it will be good for society if the powers of surveillance are shared with the citizenry, allowing 'sousveillance' or 'viewing from below,' enabling the public to watch the watchers. According to Brin, this only continues the same trend promoted by Adam Smith, John Locke, the US Constitutionalists and the western enlightenment, who held that any elite (whether commercial, governmental, or aristocratic) should experience constraints upon its power. And there is no power-equalizer greater than knowledge.[4]
Inverse transparency and bi-directional transparency[edit]
Transparency is sometimes confused with equiveillance (the balance between surveillance and sousveillance). This balance (equilibrium) allows the individual to construct their own case from evidence they gather themselves, rather than merely having access to surveillance data that could possibly incriminate them. Sousveillance therefore, in addition to transparency, assures contextual integrity of surveillance data (i.e. a lifelong capture of personal experience can provide 'best evidence' over surveillance data to prevent the surveillance-only data from being taken out of context).
Somewhat more nuanced than simply being 'against privacy,' Brin spends an entire chapter exploring how important some degree of privacy is for most human beings, allowing them moments of intimacy, to exchange confidences, and to prepare - in some security - for the competitive world. Nevertheless, he suggests that we currently have more privacy than our ancestors, in part, because 'the last two hundred years have opened information flows, rather than shutting them down. Citizens are more able to catch violators of their rights - and hold them accountable - than commonfolk were in the old villages, that were dominated by local gentry, gossips and bullies.'
This might seem counter-intuitive at first. But he uses the song 'Harper Valley PTA' as a metaphor for how people can protect their eccentricities, and even some privacy, by assertively 'looking back.' Brin also points to restaurants, in which social disapproval keeps people from staring and eavesdropping, even though they can. Enforcement of this social rule is possible because everybody can see.
From this perspective, a coming era of 'most of the people, knowing most of what's going on, most of the time,' would only be an extension of what already gave us the Enlightenment, freedom and privacy. By comparison, he asks what the alternative would be: 'To pass privacy laws that will be enforced by elites, and trust them to refrain from looking at us?'
Brin participated in the opening keynote panel discussion at the 2005 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference, where 500 sousveillance devices were also created to contextualize and explore this debate further. (Each attendee was given a wearable camera-dome bag which created.)
Use of the concept in Brin's other works[edit]
Brin has introduced versions of the concept into his fiction.
In Earth, the setting's future history includes a war pitting most of the Earth against Switzerland, fueled by outrage over the Swiss allowing generations of kleptocrats to hide their stolen wealth in the country's secretive banks. The war results in the end of secret banking and the destruction of Switzerland as a nation. In the setting's present, surveillance by elderly retirees wearing recognizable networked camera-glasses is common.
His novel Kiln People is set in a future where cameras are everywhere and anyone can access the public ones and, for a fee, the private ones.
See also[edit]
- Sousveillance (and inverse surveillance)
References[edit]
- ^Brin, David (December 1996). 'The Transparent Society'. Wired. CondéNet (4.12). Retrieved 2008-03-14.
- ^ abSchneier, Bruce (March 6, 2008). 'The Myth of the 'Transparent Society''. Wired News. CondéNet. Retrieved 2008-03-14.
- ^Brin, David (March 12, 2008). 'David Brin Rebuts Schneier In Defense of a Transparent Society'. Wired News. CondéNet. Retrieved 2008-03-14.
- ^http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2010/07/if-corporations-are-persons.html
External links[edit]
- Brin, David (December 1996). 'The Transparent Society'. Wired. CondéNet (4.12). Retrieved 2008-03-14.
- The pitfalls of privacy.
- Book overview for RAND's list of 50 books for understanding the future human condition
Reviews[edit]
- Gross, Neil (1998). 'Everyone Is Living in a Fishbowl'. BusinessWeek. The McGraw-Hill Companies. Retrieved 2008-03-14.
- Frye, Curtis D. (1998). 'Review of The Transparent Society'. Technology & Society Book Reviews. Curtis D. Frye. Retrieved 2008-03-14.
- Finnern, Mark (August 15, 2004). 'Transparent Society Update'. Acceleration Studies Foundation Future Salon blog. Retrieved 2008-03-14.
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