Well this is sort of a culmination of a few interesting things I have read recently that’s worth some sort of reflection and perhaps commentary. Anyway, one of the ways that I like to relax is reading fiction and I recently picked up and read ‘The Traveller’ by John Twelve Hawks. I tend to like fiction that has some element of non-fiction in it, be it science, history or whatever but stories based on non-fiction do seem to provide an amount of colour that makes interesting reading. Back to The Traveller, its sort of a conspiracy theory/science/fantasy novel which involves a secret society whose aim is generally to control the population at large and uses the concept of a ‘virtual panopticon’ (do a search on panopticon / Samuel Bentham if you want to find out more) which roughly speaking, uses the idea that by thinking you are always being watched, you will adjust your behavior accordingly. Anyway, there are a couple of groups of people that are threats to this and these are harlequins and travellers. It turns out in this novel, that there is a good chance that you are always being watched. What really makes the novel interesting, and definitely lets you know where the author is coming from, is the postscript to the book, where ‘Twelve Hawks’ discusses his? views on society and how we are being tracked with technology (CCTV, RFID, GPS, and many other technologies and digital sources).
So Jen, perhaps it is more than the Web that is watching us and Kerrie, I am sure we are ‘never alone’. Here are a few things to think about though - how many times today were you under some sort of surveillance (cameras etc) on the way to work, what sort of digital trail did you leave at work, at the shops, via your mobile (who did you talk to and what was your location…) all in the one day.
The vast machine is a term used in the novel and John Twelve Hawks (a real name?) according to the novel and a couple of websites, supposedly ‘lives off the grid’. The book was released in 2005 but, despite being a ‘best seller’ has only recently found its way to my local bookshop and there is already a sequel out in other parts of the world so apologies if this is all old news. There is some interesting marketing around the book on the Web. Check its official website out to see an interesting way of promoting it and have a look for some of the other websites that have been built up around characters/places in the book - great marketing.
The novel does however highlight just how intrusive technology can become though. My family is considering going overseas next year. The kids will need their own passports now and their first ones must have photos of a quality that enables digital facial recognition and the passports themselves will have chips embedded in them. Anywhere they go they will be monitored quite closely which would seem to be a far cry from my first passport and overseas adventure (not really all that long ago but what a different experience it will be for them as they are finger printed, photo’d and subjected to all sorts of security procedures that are a necessary part of travel in some places now). The ever present CCTV and embedded RFID in The Traveller seems pretty ‘every day’. And if you can’t get enough of conspiracies and are a fan of Facebook, check this article out from the NZ Herald.
technorati tags: The Traveller, conspiracy,Facebook
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[…] Google Street view recently arrived in Australia and is already encountering interesting opinions on privacy in particular. Google Earth and Google Maps are great services already but it certainly does add an extra dimension when you are able to look at a location (360 degrees too) from street level. Of course at street level is where you will find all sorts of people engaged in all sorts of activity who may or may not want to be photographed. This is where privacy advocates are concerned. Do a Google search on Google Street View and you can find a number of articles discussing examples of where,how or when you might not want to be photographed for the world to see. What interests me though is not so much the discussion (interesting as it is) of Google Street View now but what it may look like and how it could be used in the future. Photos are a natural precursor to video so how long is it before Street View or something like it starts using video. There are countless numbers of webcams and video surveillance in our cities now. If you really want a street view to add an extra dimension to Google Earth/Maps why not integrate these into the service. What could you use such a service for? Obviously its great for real estate services, previewing where you might go on holidays etc and could be a great educational resource. How about some other uses? There should be some great mashup opportunities here. Since privacy has been raised as a concern where could this go? Well, a number of social networking services I use have presence awareness so they know when I am online. I can probably be tracked down to a general area using an IP address. So, if you know my identity, that I am online and where I am online at, if there is a webcam or some sort of accessible video surveillance nearby, theoretically it may be possible for you to do a search on me and then click to some sort of video where you can see me, without me knowing it or giving any sort of permission to do so. Is this a good or a bad thing? What if I am not online? I may be carrying my mobile phone with me. Mobiles can supposedly be located easily enough so its probably theoretically possible to track me down to a location using that technology. Of course there are other ways that I can be tracked down which I discussed briefly here. Its interesting to speculate just what sort of services could be available in the next 5 or 10 years and just how powerful and accessible technology is becoming. […]
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