Course Reflection: The Internet & Our Future
Focus Question: Is there such a thing as privacy online? Readings: Beware: the Internet could own your future & Don’t overestimate privacy of online information
The simple answer? No. The very nature of the web, in which information is broken in to discrete packets and virtually broadcast to the four winds of the web ensures that any information released in this environment will be basically available to anyone who is intent on tracking it down.
A quick perusal of these articles basically bemoans the fact that people tend to be naive about the security of information posted online, and in the first, Husna Najand suggests that “A line must be drawn between what is acceptable and what is not”. Rephrasing this as a question, the issue perhaps then is;
“Can a line be drawn between what is acceptable and what is not online?”
Again, the simple answer, for the same reason noted above, is “No.” Since the web, by its nature, has no centralized editorial control, and, to a large degree, literally no actual human evaluation of the contents, drawing such a line would require an algorithm to automatically analyze every web posting and to determine if it has crossed this line. The possibility of designing such an algorithm seems wildly improbable. Thus, there can be no effective line drawn online between what is acceptable and what is not. The web, like life itself, is self-perpetuating but shaped by whatever becomes an integral part of the whole.
This week’s assignment for our Technology course is to blog on our experience and learnings at the EARCOS Teachers’ Conference (ETC) in Kota Kinabalu this week. Assumedly, we should look for linkages between our course reflections and the week’s topic of discussion.
On the face of it, there has been little in the sessions I’ve attended this week which I can link back directly to online privacy. The three keynote speakers this year have all been environmentalists at one level or another, their messages uniformly messages of hope and potentiality.
The conference began with Alan AtKisson, who presented the concept of “exponential growth” (driven home with an interactive ditty in which the audience sang, on cue, the refrain “exponential growth”) – and the idea that countering the exponential growth of events such as atmospheric carbon loading, habitat destruction and species extinction, there are positive incidences of exponential growth in areas such as renewable energy. If we can manage a confluence of these positive and negative trends, AtKisson proposes, we can reach a balance and avoid the many crises facing us.
The second day’s keynoter was William Lishman, a philosopher, inventor and innovator who’s address was titled “If we are not part of the solution, we’re part of the problem.” Lishman went on with a second session to show examples of his research and experience in the areas of alternative energy architecture including an overview of the design and development of his unique underground home in Ontario, Canada. As a sidebar, he showed the audience the most amazing video sequence of a calving iceberg I have ever seen
Tomorrow’s Keynoter will be John D. Liu, an American film-maker and ecologist, who has worked in China and abroad for years “on ecological film making and has written, produced and directed films on Grasslands, Deserts, Wetlands, Oceans, Rivers, Urban Development, Atmosphere, Forests, Endangered Animals, Poverty Reduction primarily for EARTH REPORT and LIFE series on the BBC World.
As I think more about this, though, it seems to me that perhaps there is a link between the concept of privacy and the issues that these three men raise. The link is in their very public presence on the web. A specific Google search of any of these three turns up 3-digit lists of hits. With this kind of online presence, even where there is duplication of some of the key stories involving or featuring them, how can personal privacy be even an issue. A little digging turns up everything from a trickle to a stream of personal data, professional accomplishments and public adulation.
Why is this relevant? It’s relevant because in the future we are facing, we need all the positive, future-oriented thinkers and do’ers that we can dig up – and it’s inevitable that the power of the web is going to be indiscriminate in the presentation and dissemination of a mix of the above. These people are doing important work – and by their very actions, they have demonstrated that the issue of personal privacy is, for them subordinate to the issues of the public good.
Thank you Alan AtKisson, William Lisham and John Liu, for showing the way!
