quote:In 2002, Ghyslain Raza, a chubby Canadian teen, filmed himself acting out a fight scene from "Star Wars" using a makeshift light saber. His awkward performance was funny, in part because it wasn't meant to be. And it certainly was never meant to be public: for nearly a year the video remained on a shelf in Raza's school's TV studio, where he'd filmed it. Sometime in 2003, though, another student discovered the video, digitized it and posted it online—and Raza's nightmare began.
This is an old article on an old topic, but it's something that's been on my mind a lot lately.
Big Brother: The Government, looking over your shoulder.
Little Brother: Everyone else, watching you online.
Big Brother's been done in fiction; now that everything has a camera on it, has written a novel about Little Brother?
posted
Well. There is Cory Doctorow's recent novel called Little Brother, which is in a similar realm of thought -- but what Little Brother seems to mean to him is very different than what you've suggested. But I thought it was a wonderful little book. I clicked on this thinking this would be a Cory Doctorow thread.
Posts: 2267 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
There is this book called extras by Scott Westerfeld. I think it might have a little bit of a similar idea to what your talking about. However, it is a sci-fi novel and technically part of a series.
Posts: 42 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by TL: Well. There is Cory Doctorow's recent novel called Little Brother, which is in a similar realm of thought -- but what Little Brother seems to mean to him is very different than what you've suggested. But I thought it was a wonderful little book. I clicked on this thinking this would be a Cory Doctorow thread.
Ha! Me too. No talk of cryptology here, how boring. If only my Xbox was as cool as Cory Doctorow's conception.
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quote:Originally posted by Geekazoid: There is this book called extras by Scott Westerfeld. I think it might have a little bit of a similar idea to what your talking about. However, it is a sci-fi novel and technically part of a series.
It is also set in a future, that while all too believable (for the most part), is significantly different than the present in pertinent ways.
Anyway, the Extras are Big Brother, neh?
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posted
I would say not. It was more the Specials who were Big Brother. The idea of Extras was that society was all about catching people doing things and reporting on it to the world to make yourself famous. That sounds a lot like Little Brother to me.
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posted
Ah, sorry. It's been a while since I read Uglies. Got 'em mixed up. (And I haven't read the rest of the series at all.)
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posted
The DavidBrin's original professionally published essay about The Transparent Society was online in '96. May have been around even earlier as a more-in-depth version on his personal website. Frankly I don't remember any significant period of time after MOSAIC and the WorldWideWeb first became a significant online presence before running across it.
posted
JohnBrunner wrote upon the topic even earlier in a novel published in 1976 called The Shockwave Rider, fondly referred to by some as The Hacker's Bible. In fact, I'd highly recommend Stand on Zanzibar , Jagged Orbit , and The Sheep Look Up as precursor novels within his cyberpunk quartet.
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posted
BTW: The Wiki article is misleading in how it was named. The original BallantineBooks cover showed a surfer catching a wave. The book ends with the protagonist proclaiming that* "To avoid drowning in a tsunami of information, people will just have to learn to surf the shockwave**." Hence "surfing the net" and "surfing the web"... ...and not that made-up-long-after-the-fact nonsense of "The use of 'surf' was coined in honor of Vint Cerf."
* Paraphrasing, don't have a copy of the book handy at the moment. ** The 'shock' comes from Future Shock, a book hypothesizing about the effects of an upcoming age of information overload.
posted
There's a Chinese counterpat, the "Human Flesh Search Engine"
quote: For Wang Fei, the journey from high-flying advertising executive to jobless national hate figure began with an extramarital affair. His disgrace was absolute and immediate. Rarely is there any other outcome after one becomes a target of the "human flesh search engine."
This is the name given to the Internet-powered manhunts that have achieved notoriety across China this year. A human flesh search engine is where thousands of volunteer cybervigilantes unite to expose the personal details of perceived evildoers and publish them on the Web.
The consequences for those on the receiving end often transcend the virtual world and can include loss of employment, public shaming, even imprisonment. Conversely, the most voracious "flesh hunters" are widely seen as the online equivalent of lynch mobs. Many of the participants are too young to draw a loose comparison with the "public criticisms" and purges of the Cultural Revolution more than 40 years ago.
...
Wang is by no means alone. The human flesh search engine first shot to prominence in 2006, thanks to the macabre actions of Wang Jue, a nurse from Heilongjiang Province.
Now known as the "Kitten Killer of Hangzhou," Wang Jue uploaded a video of herself crushing a kitten to death under her high heels. People identified her location by studying the backdrop to the video and traced the offending pair of stilettos to a purchase made on eBay (nasdaq: EBAY - news - people ). The stilettoed murderess eventually issued a public apology, blaming her actions on her devastation following her failed marriage. Both she and the cameraman who recorded the kitten killing lost their jobs.
quote: One might be inclined to use similar words to describe the officials whose holiday video from a taxpayer-financed African junket recently got uploaded onto the internet. Click here for the full video.
When I watch China's human flesh search engines in action I often think of the Cultural Revolution and the Red Guards. Unlike the Red Guards they're not really being manipulated by one charismatic leader (yet); they're just acting on their own. Like the Red Guards, the intent of today's cyber-vigilantes is idealistic; they believe in their absolute moral righteousness. Sometimes they expose corrupt and venal officials who deserve to go to jail. Other times they conduct moral witch hunts against people whose behavior may not be very admirable but what crime did they commit exactly and who is to be the judge?
It is very exciting that the Internet is making it increasingly difficult for Chinese government officials to behave irresponsibly, abuse taxpayer funds, or commit crimes without being exposed. The question is, where is this all headed?
quote:There is this book called extras by Scott Westerfeld. I think it might have a little bit of a similar idea to what your talking about.
It's about a city that has a reputation based economy. The more famous you are, the more resources you get.
Posts: 399 | Registered: Dec 2008
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posted
Pretty much true now. eg ParisHilton* makes ~$11million per year for being famous for being famous. On polls asking people what they want out of life: fame outranks wealth, health, family, professional respect, and everything else listed by pollsters.
The real problem is government claiming a "right to privacy" to coverup malfeasance by its own employees as well as by lobbyists (both registered and unregistered) and the corporations they represent, while insisting that private individuals have no such right-to-privacy protection from spying by the government and similar corporations.
* BTW: That oft repeated slur about BaronHilton disinheriting his granddaughter because he's been embarrassed by her behaviour is nonsense. He's been asked quite directly during interviews, and has replied that such speculation is absolute drivel. Then smiled, "Paris has proven herself to be quite capable of making her own money." Especially when compared to the early business acumen of Baron himself. After a series of other less-than-successful attempts to prove himself to be business-oriented, Baron was well-under flat-broke from backing CarteBlanche (an early credit card company) before his lawyers made his fortune by breaking his fathers will (which gave everything to a charitable organization that ConradHilton had set up). It was only after his takeover of the empire Conrad built that Baron began to make money.
quote:Originally posted by Mucus: There's a Chinese counterpat, the "Human Flesh Search Engine"
quote: For Wang Fei, the journey from high-flying advertising executive to jobless national hate figure began with an extramarital affair. His disgrace was absolute and immediate. Rarely is there any other outcome after one becomes a target of the "human flesh search engine."
This is the name given to the Internet-powered manhunts that have achieved notoriety across China this year. A human flesh search engine is where thousands of volunteer cybervigilantes unite to expose the personal details of perceived evildoers and publish them on the Web.
The consequences for those on the receiving end often transcend the virtual world and can include loss of employment, public shaming, even imprisonment. Conversely, the most voracious "flesh hunters" are widely seen as the online equivalent of lynch mobs. Many of the participants are too young to draw a loose comparison with the "public criticisms" and purges of the Cultural Revolution more than 40 years ago.
...
Wang is by no means alone. The human flesh search engine first shot to prominence in 2006, thanks to the macabre actions of Wang Jue, a nurse from Heilongjiang Province.
Now known as the "Kitten Killer of Hangzhou," Wang Jue uploaded a video of herself crushing a kitten to death under her high heels. People identified her location by studying the backdrop to the video and traced the offending pair of stilettos to a purchase made on eBay (nasdaq: EBAY - news - people ). The stilettoed murderess eventually issued a public apology, blaming her actions on her devastation following her failed marriage. Both she and the cameraman who recorded the kitten killing lost their jobs.
quote: One might be inclined to use similar words to describe the officials whose holiday video from a taxpayer-financed African junket recently got uploaded onto the internet. Click here for the full video.
When I watch China's human flesh search engines in action I often think of the Cultural Revolution and the Red Guards. Unlike the Red Guards they're not really being manipulated by one charismatic leader (yet); they're just acting on their own. Like the Red Guards, the intent of today's cyber-vigilantes is idealistic; they believe in their absolute moral righteousness. Sometimes they expose corrupt and venal officials who deserve to go to jail. Other times they conduct moral witch hunts against people whose behavior may not be very admirable but what crime did they commit exactly and who is to be the judge?
It is very exciting that the Internet is making it increasingly difficult for Chinese government officials to behave irresponsibly, abuse taxpayer funds, or commit crimes without being exposed. The question is, where is this all headed?
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Awesome, next thing we need is someone to come across a deathnote.
