The inability to "control something" is the source of many fears. It seems that our shift has gone from distusting government (i.e. "Big Brother") to distrusting ourselves: Sousveillance: "Yet the implicit mental model of Big Brother is curiously old-fashioned because it is Orwell's vision that has become so dominant. This vision is rooted in a post-war perspective on the future, where technology is used to create giant databases so the government can exercise centralised control of society.
However, if technology continues to evolve along current lines, then Big Brother will end up being far more powerful than Orwell envisaged (in the sense that we will have far less individual privacy). In a world of matchbox-sized MPeg4 camcorders and cameraphones, of always-on broadband and RFID, your next-door neighbours will be the nemesis of privacy."
Posted by gsiemens at July 15, 2005 3:55 PM