I own 'Transparent Society', it is non-fiction, not a novel – but definitely relevant to envysion's model. Also, Crichton is pop-scifi, Brin is the real thing – just to get that clear…

I think the premise that massive video surveillance will be beneficial with greater accountability and transparency is flawed. This presupposes that good behavior is clearly known and agreed upon by all. Then the video cameras would simply record behavior and we could easily determine value. The problem is that goodness and badness is inherently gray. People disagree on what is good. People also want to engage in activities that others might not see as good. This could be anything from the banal (poor etiquette) to the profound (sexual orientation, religious belief). I think this is why so many people value privacy – simply to hide elements of their life where consensus on goodness does not exist but problems may arise if others knew. In any event, I think most video surveillance can be justified on more narrower, unintruisive tasks like shrink reduction or loss prevention. I am curious to see how this evolves.

Ah, I figured it was fiction, guess I need to read it! And yes, Brin has a Phd in Space Physics. I think an interesting element of that book that I still want to read is, "Who controls access to information?" If there is widespread shared/equal access to information, I think there's a case for increasing transparency and accountability. However, if information is only held in the hands of a few then the story is quite different. I don't think we're necessarily headed straight along a path of equal and free access to information. But technology is making more information available and easing it's sharing. As the free content community has said, Information wants to be free. (not referring to price, but rather to availability) A very in depth review of privacy today is at SciAm.com: http://www.sciam.com/report.cfm?id=privacy

Ah, I figured it was fiction, guess I need to read it! And yes, Brin has a Phd in Space Physics. I think an interesting element of that book that I still want to read is, "Who controls access to information?" If there is widespread shared/equal access to information, I think there's a case for increasing transparency and accountability. However, if information is only held in the hands of a few then the story is quite different. I don't think we're necessarily headed straight along a path of equal and free access to information. But technology is making more information available and easing it's sharing. As the free content community has said, Information wants to be free. (not referring to price, but rather to availability) A very in depth review of privacy today is at SciAm.com: http://www.sciam.com/report.cfm?id=privacy