Sneak Preview Of Vernor Vinge's Next Book 186
orac2 writes "The current issue of IEEE Spectrum Magazine is running a special report titled Sensor Nation, about the technology and social issues involved with the rising tide of ubiquitous surveillance and analysis. One of the articles is a short story by Vernor Vinge about what kind of future we could end up living in, titled Synthetic Serendipity. The story is actually adapted from the book Vinge is currently working on, called Rainbows End (and for the grammar nazis, that's right, there's no apostrophe at the end of 'Rainbows.') ObPlug: I'll be talking at The 5th HOPE in New York on Saturday at 4pm in Area B, and I'll bring along a few issues for any interested slashdotters."
Rainbows End (Score:3, Insightful)
Ooookaaay (Score:0, Insightful)
And for the spelling pedants, it's spelled "Sneak Preview". (I haven't made up my mind whether the use of "nazi" for "pedant" is more or less offensive than the morons who compare the US of 2004 to Nazi Germany, but I really could do without either.)
I remain: Unafraid, Undeterred. (Score:5, Insightful)
And you know what? I don't care. Because I've made a choice to deal with this stuff. If you don't want to live with modern society's "privacy invasion", then don't bitch that you can't take part in all the luxuries and services it provides for you. Don't own a house. Don't own a car. Don't have a credit card. You know there are millions of people living in America who are completely in the Black, off the radar, invisible. I know people who call them "illegals" but they're just good people, most of them Mexican, making a decent living. If privacy is important to you, get off your god damned yuppie ass, stop bitching, and go get a real education from someone who actually knows something about privacy: the "illegals" who mop your shit off the linoleum floor. You want to know what their "social security number" is? 123-Fuck-You-Charlie-Bravo.
You can give it all up, check out of the system, dissapear. If you have balls. On the other hand, if you're a coward and you want your cake: the house, the car, the job, the credit rating, the phone number and static IP address - but you don't want to accept the "privacy invasion" that comes part and parcel with modern society - do us all a favor and drink up a nice cup of Shut The Fuck Up.
Re:"If you have the balls" (Score:4, Insightful)
Taking the easy way out, or... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't mind a credit card company to keep track of my purchases, or my car ownership being registered in some government database. What I do mind is for corporations and governments to do god knows what with that data, and use it for purposes other than the ones it was collected for. One way to ensure this is to accept the system and cop out, hide, disappear like you suggest. Another way is to try and change the system, making sure that there are proper laws to govern what can be done with your data, and to make sure that the government collects only the data it needs to do its job. Our country (the Netherlands) has very strict rules about this: you can ask any company to disclose what data they have stored about you, and the data is not allowed to be used for anything other than its stated purpose. Sure... it's misused sometimes, but at least you'll have a nice legal stick to beat them with if you catch them. Not foolproof, but good enough if you want the nice house, car and other luxuries of our modern society.
People 'bitch and moan', as you call it because they want the system changed, rather than just give up.
Mediated Reality Requires No Hardware (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, anyone can turn off their enhancements and see the plain old reality, but most people don't bother most of the time because things are ugly that way.
There's less need for optical sensor feeds to change reality than you might think.
In my experience, most people have moved the alteration of perception part back deeper into their brains.
They already live in a mediated reality here and now in 2004.
Re:I remain: Unafraid, Undeterred. (Score:3, Insightful)
As long as this is being adhered to, I'm cool with it.
Re:Rainbows End (Score:2, Insightful)
Why not? seemed like pretty standard stuff to be, some of your usual boiler plate, no big deal.
Re:Can you say, "augmented reality?" (Score:4, Insightful)
Greg Egan [netspace.net.au] is one of my absolute favourites (and I have read and like all the authors you list).
Character development is perhaps not his best side, but he cannot be beaten ideas-wise. If you're into SF that focuses on the logical implications of AI and VR technologies taken to the extreme, this guy is the best. I particularly recommend _Permutation City_ and _Diaspora_.
Re:I remain: Unafraid, Undeterred. (Score:4, Insightful)
And I for one am grateful for the people who are trying to deflect the steam engine before it runs right off the rails.
Re:technological singularity (Score:5, Insightful)
Just for fun I've been known to argue that this has already happened.
We're still adapting to the effects of a good information network. Remember what happened when Gorbachev legalized information flow in the old Soviet Union? The largest empire in human history evaporated like a bad dream. Nobody(*) predicted that. Now we have Google. What's coming next?
(*) Almost nobody. Poul Anderson had a story in 1953 called "The Last Deliverer" in which a far-future character asked whatever happened to the Communists. The answer was something like "They didn't understand the implications of the new technology. They weren't so much overthrown as everyone started ignoring them".
Re:We haven't had real privacy for a while... (Score:3, Insightful)
Four words: Not Going To Happen.
There has always been and will always be people who think that "my way is the only right way", "what I don't think is right is sinful" or "anyone who does not believe/behave/talk the same way as me is Evil and Should Be Re-educated Or Killed". Intolerance is part of how human societies operate, it isn't going anywhere.
Re:I remain: Unafraid, Undeterred. (Score:4, Insightful)
Right. Let's say that happens. Everyone who dislikes the system drops out. Then the only people left in the system are those who either A) want to spy on and/or control others, B) don't mind being spyed on or controlled, or C) are unaware.
So what happens? The system becomes stronger, better able to control it's populace. But now there's this annoying group of "off the grid" people. What does the system do? What it's made to do, of course, it tries to control them! But now, having been left to perfect it's methods of control (remember, all of the rebels left) it's developed some rather effective ways to control and track a populace. There's not much those poor lotechs can do to stop it. Welcome to the new low cost labor force, boys!
The moral of the story? You can never hide from the world. It will always intrude on you. And if you ignore a problem it will only become worse.
Re:"If you have the balls" (Score:3, Insightful)
You can call me "un-american", whatever the hell that means, all you like. Especially since "America" is composed of quite a few different countries...
Personally, I am not socialist. I am not marxist, communist, capitalist, anarchist or most other 'ists'. I happen to believe that the government is a form of organization designed (deliberately) to protect our food, our land, our posessions, our lives, and our values. If it does these things for a majority of citizens, it is succeeding. If it does not, it is failing and will be replaced.
By your comments, I infer that you believe that it is failing. Great. Do something about it. AS A CITIZEN YOU HAVE THAT RIGHT IN THE US. Go write your congressman. Go hold up a sign someplace. VOTE.
If nobody else goes your way, then you are the minority. You should be thankful that the US is not a complete tyranny of the majority, but offers protections for the minority as well.
You want to be totally anonymous? Pay cash, avoid having an address by being homeless, and escape the system. If you think that even that minor infringement of your supposed privacy is an issue and must be stopped, you can opt out. Go be a monk or a vagrant in some other country. Go get lost in some former Soviet nation. I suspect you will have lots of privacy.
All I said was that we will never reach the point where "Big Brother" has complete control, and we never had a point where "Big Brother" had no control. It has always been a balance.
-WS
Re:Can you say, "augmented reality?" (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:We haven't had real privacy for a while... (Score:3, Insightful)
A simple example. When you were a kid/teen, you probably wanted to masturbate. You did it in secret, hoping that noone will catch you. What would change if your house was wired with security cameras, motion detectors, etc. and everyone would be notified when you start jerking off and see a live feed from your room? One possible outcome is that everyone will start carefully monitor every step, every breath, every eye movement, in order not to make others suspect you did or wanted to do anything bad. That's possible, but everyone would end with neurosis in a few months of that. There is no chance such system can be sustainable for the whole society. Another potential outcome, of course, is that after a few weeks of abstinence you would finally think "what the heck?" and start spanking the monkey. Your parents (or vice police) would either have to severely punish you (possible, but unworkable on a national scale, especially in the future when you see everything and must act on every minor illegal act) or make this acceptable. That's exactly what is done in normal families with healthy psychological climate. That's exactly what I expect to happen in our future.