How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Telescreen

David Brin's notion that a panopticon America will be big fun so long as we can watch the police back, laid out at length in The Transparent Society, always struck me as a bit sanguine. Still, he always makes for interesting reading, so this updated essay on that theme is worth sitting through the annoying Salon ad. Even if you're less enthusiastic than Brin about the world he describes, he's probably right that this particular genie can't be rebottled, and we'd best begin thinking about how to live with these technologies.