« Newborn | Main | Keith Olbermann and the violent cosmology of the new news » No more lost citiesRegardless who "invented the Internet," William Gibson invented cyberspace. He's still thinking about the digital realm, which he says "is inherently porous." These days we're all coming to the attention of the authorities as a matter of course. But the really new thing is that the authorities are coming to our attention. It's more difficult for authorities to keep their secrets. it's working both ways. We live in the era of the leak, the document that doesn't get wiped off the hard drive. That drive you thought was wiped shows up in a pawn shop in Vegas. It's equally porous in both directions. But individuals have a better chance of applying transparency to their lives and transactions on the internet than states and corporations do. If we continue in this direction, I believe people in the future will wield unimaginable tools of forensic transparency — and they'll aim them back at history. They'll find out about what every major player did all the way back with tools we can't imagine today. There will be no more lost cities.Check out Gibson's interview at the often brilliant online zine io9. jon posted this at 8:03 AM |
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