The Transparent Society:

Selected Reviews of The Transparent Society

The following review appeared in Science News:

"Brin expounds upon his belief that people need to keep watch on snooping governments, employers, insurance companies, and so on. With the installation of encryption systems and the passing of privacy laws, he fears this ability will be lost, further clouding the average person's sense of what others know about him or her. If we continue to keep watch, Brin asserts, the information gatherers can be held accountable for their actions. In assessing the current state of affairs, Brin divulges a barrage of ways and means of monitoring electronic transmissions."

The following review appeared on the Technology and Society site:

"Science fiction is often a reliable predictor of the future, so it's no surprise that a noted science fiction writer would take to the non-fiction 'impact of technology' realm. It worked for Bruce Sterling, so why not for David Brin?

"Brin argues an interesting and controversial case about the nature of privacy and accountability in an era of widespread surveillance technologies. Unlike Sterling's The Hacker Crackdown, which recounted and examined the impact of 1990 law enforcement actions against the computer underground, The Transparent Society is more of a predictive volume."

Other Comments About The Transparent Society:

"David Brin's nonfiction marvel, The Transparent Society, is what Lewis Mumford or Thorstein Veblen might write, could they contemplate our increasingly webbed world and its prospects for social change. It's what Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Jefferson would be writing these days about technology and democracy. Brin's book is full of imaginative, far-sighted concern for how fluid information is going to transform our civil society. Knowledge only occasionally leads to wisdom, but here we see some, and the book is so wonderfully entertaining that it's bound to be widely read."

-- William H. Calvin, neurophysiologist and author,
How Brains Think

"New tech is handing society tough decisions to make anew about old issues of privacy and accountability. In opting for omni-directional openness, David Brin takes an unorthodox position, arguing knowledgeably and with exceptionally balanced perspective."

-- Stewart Brand, Director,
Global Business Network

"As David Brin details the inevitability of ubiquitous surveillance, your instinct, as an individual facing this one-way mirror, is to hope that he is wrong about the facts. As you follow his argument for two-way social transparency, you realize your only hope is that he is right."

-- George B. Dyson, author,
Darwin Among the Machines

"Where, in the information age, do we draw the line between privacy and openness? David Brin's answer is illuminated by his insistence that criticism is as vital to eliminating our errors as the T-cells of our immune system are to maintaining our health.... Brin's informed and lucid advocacy of fresh air is very welcome."

-- Arthur Kantrowitz, Professor of Engineering,
Dartmouth College

"David Brin is one of the few people thinking and writing about the social problems we are going to face in the near future as the result of new electronic media. The Transparent Society raises the questions we need to ask now, before the universal surveillance infrastructure is in place. Be prepared to have your assumptions challenged."

-- Howard Rheingold, author,
The Virtual Community

"The Transparent Society reframes the debate on what our world can become -- and the choices aren't what they may seem."

-- K. Eric Drexler, author,
Engines of Creation

The Table of Contents and first chapter are also available on this site.

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