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*UNDER CONSTRUCTION* | | |
I. Relativity | |
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< | On one side of the aisle, the internet has been dubbed one of the world's most destructive technologies, having the power to unite radical conspirators, reinforce niches of extreme and irrationally unfounded thought, and spread misinformation with virus-like ease. In stark contrast, some on the other side of the aisle have gone so far as to lobby for nomination of the internet for the Nobel Peace Prize, as it represents the driving force behind "a new kind of society in which massive interpersonal contact fosters consensus and understanding." While to some extent such an extreme divergence in outlooks is a reflection of the natural human tendency to gravitate toward extremes of optimism or pessimism during times of uncertainty about rapid societal transformation, both of these outlooks nonetheless seem to root themselves in "reasonable" concerns about the future of society, as appraised through looking-glasses equipped with conflicting personal visions for the future. | >
> | On one side of the aisle, the internet has been dubbed one of the world's most destructive technologies, having the power to unite radical conspirators, reinforce niches of extreme and irrationally unfounded thought, and spread misinformation with virus-like ease. In stark contrast, some on the other side of the aisle have gone so far as to lobby for nomination of the internet for the Nobel Peace Prize, as it represents the driving force behind "a new kind of society in which massive interpersonal contact fosters consensus and understanding." While to some extent such an extreme divergence in outlooks is a reflection of the natural human tendency to gravitate toward extremes of optimism or pessimism during times of uncertainty about rapid societal transformation, both of these outlooks nonetheless seem to root themselves in "reasonable" concerns about the future of society, as appraised through looking-glasses equipped with conflicting personal visions of the future. | | | | |
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< | William Saletan, reacting to the death of a baby who starved as his parents were consumed by raising a virtual child online, warned that we could be headed toward a "Terminator-esque dystopia"; in the form of a spreading anti-social epidemic. The optimistic version, on the other hand, asserts that the more significant contagion will involve "cascades of cooperative behavior"; and outpourings of altruism like, for example, the rapid spread of donations witnessed throughout the recent Haitian earthquake response. The list of divergences in forecasts goes on: | >
> | William Saletan, reacting to the death of a baby who starved as his parents were consumed by raising a virtual child online, warned that we could be headed toward a "Terminator-esque dystopia" in the form of a spreading anti-social epidemic. The optimistic version, on the other hand, asserts that the more significant contagion will involve "cascades of cooperative behavior" and outpourings of altruism like, for example, the rapid spread of donations witnessed throughout the recent Haitian earthquake response. The list of divergences in forecasts goes on: | | | • Some fear that the human tendency to have a self-confirming bias will lead to ideological segregation and a more "ghettoized, polarized and insular electorate," whereas others assert that the internet is actually more ideologically integrated than old-fashioned forms of face-to-face association. | | | II. Limited Understanding | |
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> | Prior to the emergence of internet-facilitated interconnectedness that now pervades society, the conceptualization of privacy as a right protected by the Fourth Amendment was relatively easy to demarcate as an issue of strictly physical boundaries. But now, given a suddenly digital and paperless society, the legal understanding of the so called right "to be secure in one's papers" is flummoxed by a technological disappearing act. Physical boundaries housing private/personal information have been replaced by imperceptible digits, and so the debate over privacy has morphed into a struggle to elucidate the nature and consequences of essentially phantom breaches of invisible homes. And with such an elusive phantom perpetrator who is constantly evolving and taking on new forms, efforts to describe the common elements of its serial crimes are inclined to resemble the pathetic flailings of Wile E. Coyote.
To draw an analogy: enforcing the rule that metal bats are not allowed in professional baseball is relatively straightforward -- the breach is perceptible. But as technology advances to a degree such that tools yielding unfair advantages are imperceptible, the result is a generation of statistics tainted by performance enhancing drugs. Moreover, even if the imperceptible is feasibly detectable, the advancement of technology might be ever-pressed to sidestep the old adage that the criminal is always one step ahead of the law -- or, more specifically, the privacy breaching technology of the executive branch is often beyond or hidden from the grasp of the other branches. In other words, the executive branch is the primary wielder of technology because technology is executive in nature -- it enables the execution of national cyber-security measures via the Department of Homeland Security. While Supreme Court Justices remain in a twilight zone of telephone analogies and text messages without service providers, the executive branch is experimenting with ADVISE. Kudos to Congress for entertaining the chase and asking for a GAO report, but it's hard not to see the reflection of Wile E. when the request was reportedly made because "they had no idea what the government was doing in data mining." | | |
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