by David Brin
According to some champions of liberty, shields of secrecy will put common folk on even ground with the mighty. Privacy must be defined by rules or tools that enhance concealment. One wing of this movement would create Eurostyle privacy commissions, pass a myriad laws and dispatch clerks to police what may be known by doctors, corporations and ultimately individuals. Another wing of strong privacy prefers libertarian technofixes—empowering individuals with encryption and cybernetic anonymity. Both wings claim we must build high walls to safeguard every private garden, each sanctum of the mind.
This widespread modern myth has intuitive appeal. And I can only reply that it’s been tried, without even one example of a commonwealth that thrived based on this principle.
There is a better way—a method largely responsible for this renaissance we’re living in. Instead of trying to blind the mighty—a futile goal, if ever there was one—we have emphasized the power of openness, giving free citizens knowledge and unprecedented ability to hold elites accountable. Every day we prove it works, rambunctiously demanding to know, rather than trying to stop others from knowing.
(Isn’t it far easier to verify that you know something than to verify that someone else doesn’t?)
It’s called accountability—a light that can shine even on gods of authority. Whether they gather in the Olympian heights of government, amid the spuming currents of commerce, or in Hadean shadows of criminality, they cannot harm us while pinned by its glare.
Accountability is the only defense that truly protects free speech, in a garden that stands proudly, with no walls.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Our appreciation goes to others who gave their time and talents to this project: Cheryl Brigham for her insightful reading and critique, Beverly F. Price for her office and technical support, and Robert Williamson, intern at The Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination, for eagerness to perform a variety of tasks. The Clarke Center’s generous support included encouragement from Director Sheldon Brown and Program Manager Laura Martin. Also appreciated, vital engagement by Jennifer Gunnels and David Hartwell of Tor Books.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
James Gunn, named Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, is a professor emeritus of English and the founding director of the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas. His books include Transcendental, The Magicians, The Immortals, and The Listeners.
Nancy Fulda’s stories have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, and Daily Science Fiction. She received the Jim Baen Memorial Award and has worked as an editor of Jim Baen’s Universe and the SFWA website.
R. C. Fitzpatrick published several science-fiction stories in the 1960s, mostly in Analog Science Fiction and Fact. He was nominated for a 1966 Nebula Award for his novelette “Half a Loaf.”
James Morrow’s satiric novels Only Begotten Daughter and Towing Jehovah both received the World Fantasy Award. His shorter fiction has won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award and, twice, the Nebula Award. In 2005 he was honored with the Prix Utopia. Morrow’s latest novel, Galápagos Regained, celebrates the coming of the Darwinian worldview.
Damon Knight (1922–2002) was a Hugo Award–winning writer, best known for stories such as “To Serve Man” and “The Country of the Kind.” A founder of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, he was later named a SFWA Grand Master and inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
David Walton’s first novel, Terminal Mind, won the 2008 Philip K. Dick Award for best SF paperback of the year. His most recent books are the quantum-physics murder mysteries Superposition and Supersymmetry. By day he works as an engineer for Lockheed Martin and is the father of seven children.
Vylar Kaftan’s stories have appeared in Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and Clarkesworld. In 2013, she won a Nebula Award for her novella The Weight of the Sunrise, and in the same year a Sidewise Award for alternate history for the same work.
Jack McDevitt has won the Nebula, Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke, John W. Campbell, and Robert A. Heinlein Awards for his many short stories, novellas, and novels. His most recent novels include Starhawk, Coming Home, and Thunderbird.
Vernor Vinge is Emeritus Professor of Computer Science at San Diego State University. His science-fiction novels have won five Hugo Awards, including ones for A Fire upon the Deep, A Deepness in the Sky, and Rainbows End.
Aliette de Bodard has won two Nebula Awards, a Locus Award, and a British Science Fiction Award. Her novels include The House of Shattered Wings, Obsidian and Blood, and On a Red Station, Drifting, which was a finalist for the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards.
David Ramirez was inspired by Jurassic Park into giving molecular biology a try and working on the Human Genome Project. Since then, he has realized that it was more the fiction part of science fiction that he loved. His novel The Forever Watch was published in 2014.
Neal Stephenson is the author of Seveneves, Reamde, Anathem, and the three-volume historical epic the Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World), as well as Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, and Zodiac. He lives in Seattle, Washington.
Jack Skillingstead’s stories have been published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Realms of Fantasy, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. He has been a finalist for both the Philip K. Dick Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Award. His books include Harbinger, Are You There and Other Stories, and Life on the Preservation.
Gregory Benford is Emeritus Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California at Irvine. He has published science fiction since the 1960s, won a Nebula Award for the novella If Stars Are Gods, coauthored with Gordon Eklund, and received multiple awards for his 1980 novel Timescape, including the Nebula, the John W. Campbell Award, and the British Science Fiction Association Award. His other novels include In the Ocean of Night, Great Sky River, and In the Heart of the Comet, written with David Brin.
Robert J. Sawyer has won the Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards, all for best science-fiction novel of the year, plus Canada’s Aurora Award (a record-setting thirteen times), Spain’s Premio UPC de Ciencia Ficción (three times), Japan’s Seiun Award (three times), and China’s Galaxy Award. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Winnipeg and Laurentian University. The ABC TV series FlashForward was based on his novel of the same name. His twenty-third novel, Quantum Night, was published in March 2016.
Brenda Cooper is a technology professional and futurist. Her novels include The Silver Ship and the Sea, Edge of Dark, and The Creative Fire, the latter in the Ruby’s Song series. She coauthored the novel Building Harlequin’s Moon with Larry Niven. Her short stories have appeared in the collection Cracking the Sky.
Stephen W. Potts is a faculty member in the Department of Literature at the University of California, San Diego, where he specializes in modern fiction and popular culture. He has published books and articles on a range of subjects, especially science fiction and science studies, as well as editorials, reviews, and short fiction. In 1993, he won the Eaton Award for his monograph on Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. You can sign up for email updates here.
Cat Rambo’s short stories have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Weird Tales, and Strange Horizons. Her collections include Near + Far and Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight. Her work has been short-listed for both the World Fantasy and Nebula Awards. She is the current (2016) president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
Stephen Gaskell is a freelance video-game script consultant. His stories have appeared in Interzone, Clarkesworld, and anthologies such as The Year’s Best Military SF and Space Opera. He coedited the anthology Extreme Planets with David Brin.
Scott Sigler is the creator of fifteen novels, six novellas, and dozens of short stories. His works are available from Crown Publishing and Del Rey Books. He is also a cofounder of Empty Set
Entertainment, which publishes his young-adult Galactic Football League series. Scott lives in San Diego, California.
Robert Silverberg has won Hugo or Nebula Awards in every decade since the 1950s. Named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, he is the author of such novels as Nightwings, A Time of Changes, Downward to the Earth, Dying Inside, and Lord Valentine’s Castle, as well as such shorter works as “Born with the Dead” and Sailing to Byzantium. When not engaged with science fiction, he has produced several books on archaeology and history.
Ramez Naam is a computer scientist, an entrepreneur, and the multiple award-winning author of five books, including the brain-hacking Nexus trilogy. He teaches at Singularity University on energy and environment. Follow him on twitter at @ramez or find him on the web at rameznaam.com.
Karl Schroeder is a Canadian science-fiction writer and futurist. Having published ten novels translated into as many languages, in 2011 Karl received a Masters in Strategic Foresight and Innovation from OCAD University, and consults on trends and opportunities for clients in government and industry. He lives in Toronto, Canada, with his wife and daughter.
Kathleen Ann Goonan is a visiting professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her novels include Queen City Jazz, This Shared Dream, and In War Times, winner of the John W. Campbell Award.
Bruce Sterling, winner of Hugo, Clarke, and Campbell Awards, is a contributing editor of WIRED magazine. A central figure in the cyberpunk literary movement of the 1980s, he has produced such novels as Islands in the Net, The Difference Engine (with William Gibson), The Caryatids, and Schismatrix Plus.
David Brin is a scientist and futurist. His award-winning novels include Earth and Existence, as well as The Postman (loosely adapted into a movie by Kevin Costner), and the Uplift series. His nonfiction work The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom? won the Freedom of Speech Award of the American Library Association. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Introduction: Private Lives James Gunn
AD JUSTITIAM PER LUCEM
Mine, Yours, Ours Jack Skillingstead
Insistence of Vision David Brin
Planetbound Nancy Fulda
The Right’s Tough Robert J. Sawyer
The Circuit Riders R. C. Fitzpatrick
The Werewolves of Maplewood James Morrow
The Road to Oceania William Gibson
SURVEILLANCE—SOUSVEILLANCE
I See You Damon Knight
Eyejacked David Walton
FeastWar Vylar Kaftan
Your Lying Eyes Jack McDevitt
The Disaster Stack Vernor Vinge
LIES AND PRIVATE LIVES
First Presentation Aliette de Bodard
AfterShift Memories David Ramirez
Spew Neal Stephenson
Private Life in Cyberspace John Perry Barlow
BIG BROTHER, LITTLE BROTHER, VILLAGE
Elderjoy Gregory Benford
Street Life in the Emerald City Brenda Cooper
The Eyes Have It Stephen W. Potts
NO PLACE TO HIDE
Preferences Cat Rambo
Vectors Stephen Gaskell
Public Domain Scott Sigler
To See the Invisible Man Robert Silverberg
The Disconnected Ramez Naam
LOOKING BACK … AND LOOKING UP
Eminence Karl Schroeder
Sport Kathleen Ann Goonan
Elephant on Table Bruce Sterling
A Tsunami of Light Afterword by David Brin
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Copyright Acknowledgments
Copyright
COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
“Private Lives” copyright © 2017 by James Gunn
“Mine, Yours, Ours” copyright © 2017 by Jack Skillingstead
“Insistence of Vision” copyright © 2013 by David Brin. First published in Twelve Tomorrows, MIT Technology Review SF Annual.
“Planetbound” copyright © 2017 by Nancy Fulda
“The Right’s Tough” copyright © 2004 by Robert J. Sawyer. First published in Visions of Liberty, edited by Mark Tier and Martin H. Greenberg, Baen Books.
“The Circuit Riders” by R. C. Fitzpatrick. Published in Analog, April 1962. Public domain, acquired via Project Gutenberg.
“The Werewolves of Maplewood” copyright © 2017 by James Morrow
“The Road to Oceania” by William Gibson. 2003, The New York Times, reprinted by permission of SLL/Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc.
“I See You” copyright © 1976 Damon Knight. First published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1976.
“Eyejacked” copyright © 2017 by David Walton
“FeastWar” copyright © 2017 by Vylar Kaftan
“Your Lying Eyes” copyright © 2017 by Cryptic, Inc.
“The Disaster Stack” copyright © 2017 by Vernor Vinge. Both this version (edited by Stephen W. Potts) and the original (rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/vinge/misc/DisasterStack.htm) are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
“First Presentation” copyright © 2017 by Aliette de Bodard
“AfterShift Memories” copyright © 2017 by David Ramirez
“Spew” copyright © 1994 by Neal Stephenson. Originally published in WIRED magazine and currently collected in Some Remarks: Essays and Other Writing (William Morrow, 2012).
“Private Life in Cyberspace” copyright 1997 © by John Perry Barlow
“Elderjoy” copyright © 2017 by Gregory Benford
“Street Life in the Emerald City” copyright © 2017 by Brenda Cooper
“The Eyes Have It” copyright © 2017 by Stephen W. Potts
“Preferences” copyright © 2017 by Cat Rambo
“Vectors” copyright © 2017 by Stephen Gaskell
“Public Domain” copyright © 2017 by Scott Sigler
“To See the Invisible Man” copyright © 1963 by Agberg, Ltd. First published in Worlds of Tomorrow, April 1963.
“The Disconnected” copyright © 2017 by Ramez Naam
“Eminence” copyright © 2017 by Karl Schroeder
“Sport” copyright © 2014 by Kathleen Ann Goonan. First published in Exit Strategies (ARC Magazine, New Scientist).
“Elephant on Table” copyright © 2017 by Bruce Sterling
“A Tsunami of Light” copyright © 2017 by David Brin
This is a collection of fiction and nonfiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in the fictional stories are either products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously.
CHASING SHADOWS: VISIONS OF OUR COMING TRANSPARENT WORLD
Copyright © 2017 by David Brin
All rights reserved.
Cover art by Shutterstock
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates
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/> First Edition: January 2017
* CERT = Community Emergency Response Team, a program that trains civilians for light but crucial usefulness in case of local disasters or crises. www.ready.gov
* For the June, 1991 Electronic Frontier column in Communications of the ACM