Bruce Sterling
[email protected]
LITERARY FREEWARE: NOT FOR COMMERCIAL USE
Remarks at Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference IV
Chicago, Mar 26, 1994
I've been asked to explain why I don't worry much about the
topics of privacy threat raised by this panel. And I don't. One reason
is that these scenarios seem to assume that there will be large,
monolithic bureaucracies (of whatever character, political or
economic) that are capable of harnessing computers for one-way
surveillance of an unsuspecting populace. I've come to feel that
computation just doesn't work that way. Being afraid of monolithic
organizations especially when they have computers, is like being
afraid of really big gorillas especially when they are on fire.
The threat simply doesn't concur with my historical
experience. None of the large organizations of my youth that
compelled my fear and uneasy respect have prospered. Let me just
roll off a few acronyms here. CCCP. KGB. IBM. GM. AEC. SAC.
It was recently revealed that the CIA has been of actual
negative worth -- literally worse than useless -- to American
national security. They were in the pockets of the KGB during our
death struggle with the Soviet Union -- and yet we still won.
Japanese zaibatsus -- Japan Inc. -- the corporate monoliths of Japan
-- how much hype have we heard about that lately? I admit that
AT&T has prospered, sort of -- if you don't count the fact that
they've hollowed themselves out by firing a huge percentage of their
personnel.
Suppose that, say, Equifax, turned into an outright fascist
organization and stated abusing privacy in every way they could.
How could they keep that a secret? Realistically, given current
employment practices in the Western economies, what kind of
loyalty could they command among their own personnel? The low
level temps have no health insurance and no job security; the high
level people are ready to grab their golden parachutes and bail at any
time. Where is the fanatically loyal army of gray flannel
organization men who will swear lifelong allegiance to this
organization, or *any* organization in this country with the possible
exception of the Mafia?
I feel that the real threat to our society isn't because people
are being surveilled but because people are being deliberately
ignored. People drop through the safety nets. People stumble
through the streets of every city in this country absolutely wrapped
in the grip of demons, groping at passersby for a moment's attention
