[extropy-chat] Transparency vs. terrorism

[Russell Wallace]

On 8/7/05, Technotranscendence <neptune at superlink.net> wrote:
> What's to stop the system from being abused?  I can just see
> criminals -- including the government -- selectively blacking out areas.
> I can also see attention being directed at undesirables of all sorts.
> Such a system is likely to only add power to already too powerful nation
> states.  Now, you might claim this is not so bad, that we can trust the
> current crop of politicians and functionaries not to abuse such power
> too much.  But what happens with the next crop?  And the one after that?
> What happens when, after you've laid the foundations for a totalitarian
> state, one is actually erected upon those foundations?  I predict that
> then the terrorism will not be retail but wholesale, but none will be
> calling it such.

I agree completely. The more efficient law enforcement becomes, the
greater the extent to which the state itself - even a democratic one -
becomes a greater threat than those it is intended to protect against.

- Russell