There is, after all, nothing especially human about avoiding barriers. Pathogens are good at it, and so is malware. If we think of freedom as negative, we wake up one day as the champions of both kinds of viruses, of alien bits of DNA and unknown computer code. They must be allowed to penetrate our mouths, invade our retinas, go everywhere. In practice, among the most unquestioned American rights are those of photons to flow from computer displays to optic nerves to deliver targeted advertising, of electrons to move among banks to allow tax evasion, and of carbon dioxide molecules to heat the
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