Tired: Surveillance. Wired: *Coveillance*. Kevin Kelly ‘Splains…

Via
Instapundit comes this interesting piece by Wired’s long-time
visionary, Kevin Kelly:

We’re expanding the data sphere to sci-fi levels and there’s no
stopping it. Too many of the benefits we covet derive from
it. So our central choice now is whether this surveillance is a
secret, one-way panopticon — or a mutual, transparent kind of
“coveillance” that involves watching the watchers. The first option
is hell, the second redeemable….

The remedy for over-secrecy is to think in terms of coveillance,
so that we make tracking and monitoring as symmetrical — and
transparent — as possible. That way the monitoring can be
regulated, mistakes appealed and corrected, specific boundaries
set and enforced. A massively surveilled world is not a
world I would design (or even desire), but massive surveillance is
coming either way because that is the bias of digital technology
and we might as well surveil well and civilly….

The self forged by previous centuries will no longer suffice. We
are now remaking the self with technology. We’ve broadened our
circle of empathy, from clan to race, race to species, and soon
beyond that. We’ve extended our bodies and minds with tools and
hardware. We are now expanding our self by inhabiting virtual
spaces, linking up to billions of other minds, and trillions of
other mechanical intelligences. We are wider than we were, and as
we offload our memories to infinite machines, deeper in some
ways.

Amplified coveillance will shift society to become even more
social; more importantly it will change how we define ourselves as
humans.

Read the whole thing.

Lots think about, especially if you’re familiar with David
Brin’s thoughts on the matter
from years gone by.

Much of what Kelly discusses is also touched on in Reason’s
pathbreaking June 2004
issue, which featured 40,000 personalized editions of the
magazine sent to subscribers and a great cover story, “Database
Nation: The Upside of Zero Privacy,” by Declan McCullagh.