From the author who wrote the book that Up in the Air is based on.
The night i saw my first black helicopter—or heard it, because black helicopters are invisible at night—I was already growing certain that we, the sensible majority, owe plenty of so-called crackpots a few apologies. We dismissed them, shrugging off as delusions or urban legends various warnings and anecdotes that now stand revealed, in all too many instances, as either solid inside tips or spooky marvels of intuition.
Ironically, Disconnect tells me there are 18 trackers on that page.
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am_Unition: We're all pretty well-versed on the future legal ramifications of storing every byte of our lives somewhere. That's logical and straightforward. But exploring the effect on the human psyche and the societal repercussions of this growing surveillance state has gotten nowhere near enough attention.
Some choice snippets:
The situation reminded me that the ferreting-out of secrets is merely one purpose of surveillance; it also disciplines, inhibits, robbing interactions of spontaneity and turning them into self-conscious performances.
Loss of privacy seemed like a tiny issue, suddenly, compared with the greater loss the [Utah Data Center] presaged: loss of existential stature.
There seemed to be no rational response to the feelings of powerlessness stirred by the cybernetic panopticon; the choice was either to ignore it or go crazy, at least to some degree.
Once you know how very little you know about those who wish to know everything about you, daily experience starts to lose its innocence and little things begin to feel like the tentacles of big things.
...I wondered whether a generation that found the concept of privacy archaic might be undergoing a great mutation, surrendering the interior psychic realms whose sanctity can no longer be assured.
There are so many ghosts in our machines—their locations so hidden, their methods so ingenious, their motives so inscrutable—that not to feel haunted is not to be awake.
So, Hubski, you're reclining on a couch in my office while I cradle a clipboard in my arms. I want to know: "How does that make you feel?".