algebraist's Journal: Bob Cringely Meets Big Brother (a.k.a. "Patriot")

Bob Cringely's weekly column this week dwells on the implications of Cold-War-era-style surveillance empowered by the Internet and energized by the Patriot Act. He is panicked, not only because the Big Bad Guys In Washington are now capable of eavesdropping on salacious e-mail sent between People Married To Others, but because, according to Cringely, the base system is locked down so poorly the same vehicle is available to All Kinds Of People, some more nefarious.

Lest you think I am simply revealing my true nature as your local representative of the Village Voice or the Boston Phoenix, consider that I really do not care what the consequences of these laws are, Patriot or otherwise. My personal experience with these kinds of folks and their manner of data collection suggests what they gleam from these sources, however reputable and damaging it may be to innocents in U.S. courts, is at odds with reality. Being so, the users and believers of this data run risk of having reality impose itself most unpleassantly upon them, as reality often does to folks who ignore it or somehow feel they are above it, whether they are mere psychotics or members of the National Security Council.

If an opponent, whoever he or she be, should understand the reality better than these personages, they will necessarily have an advantage. There is no unpatriotism intended here. Nor do I want to see the United States in any way diminished or set back. But, like all of us, I have limits, including a finite amount of time and interest to achieve and influence. Should the People's Republic, for instance, understand and access these resources better than do our own, while I may mourn our country's loss because of it, if I am being really objective, I can only consider the outcome it to be proper, suitable, and deserved. This is also why I do not get upset over our collective propensity to ignore global warming.

Incidently, that exemplary entity, the PRC, of course, suffers its own disconnects with reality. The Chinese treatment of Tibet and of Tibetan Buddhists is reprehensible at best.

It is possible this attitude is simply an extension or corollary of my distaste for political polarization. But it also may be indicative of my gaining increasing respect for the ideas of Lawrence Lessig, increasing sympathy for his Creative Commons projects, and of my search for another place, space, and vehicle to express my concerns about America's capacity for innovation, particularly as evident in what should be a huge driver of technological spending, the entertainment sector, but isn't.