Subj : See Saw
To   : Todd Henson
From : Kevin Gibson
Date : Thu Mar 22 2001 12:46 am

..
 Hello Todd,

 TH> "Light" sounds fascinating. A world with no inner privacy.
 TH> In such an environment, I'll bet true thought-crimes legislation
 TH> would be possible.  Everyone would be breaking such laws. What chaos!

 "The Light of Other Days" is about the transformation of humanity under
 the gaze of ubiquitous cameras which enable you to view anyone, anywhere,
 anytime, much like viewing a videotape.  That might provide some evidence
 of the state-of-mind or intent of an individual.  But you're not able to
 peer into the minds of those in the scene.  So, even though you can witness
 events from multiple vantage points, there's still room for doubt about
 what an individual is thinking at any given moment.

 What I found interesting, and one thing that I'd like to explore, was
 the way people reacted to the emergence of this invention that allowed
 others to look into your world, anytime, anywhere, even without your
 permission or approval.

 The government learns of the technology after it's used by a writer
 to spy on an otherwise secure meeting between two heads of state.
 A federal government agent confronts the developers and a deal is made.

 Law enforcement secretly presses the invention into service, seeking
 out criminals and wrongdoers.  The plot takes a twist, however, when
 someone is accused of using the technology for industrial espionage.

 The book delves into the first court case dealing with evidence collected
 by means of this technology.  Questions about the nature of the evidence
 and how it's collected are raised.  How can this case be prosecuted without
 exposing the technology and alerting the public to its existence?  How
 will people react when they find out about this new form of surveillance?

 Initially, some people rebel against the intrusiveness of this technology
 by intentionally littering, jaywalking, etc. in front of authorities as if
 to reclaim some sense of lost freedom.  The scene might leave you with a
 few questions, not the least of which is just how much of this could be /
 would be prosecuted?  How much could the police, the courts and the prisons
 handle?

 There's brief mention of the technology being used in political campaigns.
 Imagine if this technology was available solely to the political party in
 power.  Contenders would be at a serious disadvantage, their private
 strategy sessions always open to the incumbent's gaze.

 How would voters respond to images of elected officials and aspiring
 candidates doing things in private that they would never do in public?

 A young insider steals the secrets behind the technology and they're
 published on the Internet.  Soon, it seems that everyone is looking in
 on the lives of everyone else.  Voyeurism abounds.  Privacy dies.

 People respond in different ways to the death of privacy.  Some take to
 wearing seamless one-piece coveralls, with long sleeves and trouser legs
 that terminate in sewn-on gloves and boots.  Others walk around without
 clothes.  New generations are born into this world, never knowing a time
 not lived under the lens.  One scene describes a young couple engaging
 in sex in public and a small crowd that gathers to watch.  More questions
 and comments on psychological reactions and the societal impact of
 surveillance are raised.  What is "decency?"  What are the boundaries of
 "decent behavior?"  What is taboo?  How will we react when we learn that
 others have the ability to intrude upon the most intimate moments of our
 lives, peering through the walls of our homes and offices?

 Truth emerges.  Crime diminishes.  Some businesses boom.  Politicians,
 those that didn't resign, "found ways to operate in the new glass-walled
 world."  Manners change.  People become more tolerable of one another.

 A number of armed conflicts are frozen into impasse.  Dictatorial and
 oppressive regimes crumble under the ultimate realization of "Open Skies,"
 former President Dwight Eisenhower's dream of international transparency.

 And we see contemplation of another vision, that of the Jesuit priest
 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who foresaw the emergence of a unified,
 collective consciousness called "The Omega Point."

 In 1945, Arthur C. Clarke suggested that artificial satellites could be
 placed in geostationary orbit around earth in order to facillitate global
 communications, a vision that has since become reality.  In "The Light of
 Other Days," the authors, Clarke and Stephen Baxter, portray such satellites
 as technology that becomes obsolete less than one hundred years later,
 less than forty years from today, replaced by the gaze of an advanced kind
 of ubiquitous videocamera to which people are physically linked.

 There are real-world parallels for the fantastic all-seeing cameras.
 Paradoxes posed by the use of such technology are illustrated throughout
 the book.  But much is glossed over.  For instance, not much is said about
 the future of capitalism or how companies and individuals survive when
 every bit of information about their business is freely available to the
 public.  What becomes of "trade secrets" and copyrights?  How will authors
 like Clarke and Baxter make a living?  Why pay for a book when you can
 freely read over the shoulders of the writer as he commits it to paper?

..

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