[Amadou]

I completely agree. I am really tired of that Brin story being constantly cited by people without thinking through the consequences - of which there are many.

One of the biggest is the destruction of creativity. When people know that their actions are under constant surveillance it creates an enormous cognitive load. They have to constantly evaluate everything they do as to how it might appear to a critical observer. The end result is that people will simply stop doing anything that might have a social risk associated with it.

A panopticon society will be a dull, stagnant and repressed society. Think of every little backwards town where everybody knows everybody's business and anyone who steps out of line is ostracized. That is what our entire society will turn into with total surveillance.

[tokipin]

i think @daveid's point is common, and i haven't actually read anything by Brin on the matter so i don't know what counterpoint he might make. maybe tracking itself would be tracked? maybe person X is watching you watch person Y? i think in general, however, with that much information, people will simply not care what everyone else is doing. part of what makes "private" information interesting is its rarity.

and i don't think anyone claims it wouldn't be a different culture, or that we should throw away core privacy like being able to sleep in our own beds without someone watching

[Amadou]

with that much information, people will simply not care what everyone else is doing. part of what makes "private" information interesting is its rarity.

That's basically Brin's theory and it is a bad one because it assumes, against all evidence to the contrary, that people will just simply stop looking for ways to judge other people as being inferior.