The Transparent Society Quotes

“Every time humans discovered a new resource, or technique for using mass and energy, one side effect has always been pollution. Why should the information age be any different from those of coal, petroleum, or the atom?”
― David Brin, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?

“Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.”
― David Brin, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?

“First they came for the hackers. But I never did anything illegal with my computer, so I didn’t speak up. Then they came for the pornographers. But I thought there was too much smut on the Internet anyway, so I didn’t speak up. Then they came for the anonymous remailers. But a lot of nasty stuff gets sent from anon.penet.fi, so I didn’t speak up. Then they came for the encryption users. But I could never figure out how to work PGP anyway, so I didn’t speak up. Then they came for me. And by that time there was no one left to speak up. WIDELY COPIED INTERNET APHORISM, A PARAPHRASE OF PROTESTANT MINISTER MARTIN NIEMOLLER‘S STATEMENT ABOUT LIFE IN NAZI GERMANY”
― David Brin, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?

“Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity. Don’t assign to stupidity what might be due to ignorance. And try not to assume your opponent is the ignorant one — until you can show it isn’t you.”
― David Brin, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom?

“In 1983, Michael W. Doyle commented on the common observation that democracies almost never wage war on one another. Understanding the reasons for this phenomenon may be crucial to our hopes for preventing devastating conflict in the next generation. Which attributes of democracy foster this essential trait of mutual nonaggression?”
― David Brin, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?

“Keep as few secrets as possible. The remaining ones will be easier to protect.”
― David Brin, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?

“Someday we may look back on this era as a time when rational compromises might have enhanced both security and liberty, but those compromises were refused because each side was so busy self-righteously being right.”
― David Brin, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?

“So if it appears that my argument supports the necessity of lawyers, please accept that I say it with reluctant awareness that things would be worse without them.”
― David Brin, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?

“Strong privacy advocates—especially those promoting encryption and anonymity—may deny that this phenomenon is a direct physical corollary of their message, so I will let the reader decide whether a philosophy that relies on cybernetic gates, walls, and coded locks is any different in its underlying basis—fear.”
― David Brin, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?

“Self-righteousness is an especially heady condition that all of us have experienced at one time or another. Those who are honest will admit there is something sickly-sweet and alluring about knowing you are right, while others are terribly wrong.”
― David Brin, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?

“free speech should be viewed as sacred and inviolable not simply for its own sake, but for utterly pragmatic reasons. Only through an active, vibrant, noisy ferment of criticism can blunders be discovered before they bring nations crashing down. Moreover, we can never tell in advance which criticism will later prove right; therefore, we must allow, foster, and even encourage all the criticism we can get.”
― David Brin, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?

“one of the most fascinating and effective kinds of lying is self-deception.”
― David Brin, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?

“Demonstrating some of the proposed new techniques of encrypted uniqueness verification that can be embedded in each customer’s use-copy of a given work.”
― David Brin, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?

“In principle, an open society sees information flow as a good thing, to be hampered only in the presence of strong evidence that harm cannot be prevented by any other means.”
― David Brin, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?

“We are, at our core, information pack rats and inveterate correlators.”
― David Brin, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?

“Would we be tormenting ourselves over the Kennedy assassination today if fifty cameras had been rolling, instead of just poor Abraham Zapruder’s?”
― David Brin, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?

“Metaphorically speaking, some very bright people suggest that citizens of the twenty-first century will be best protected by masks and shields, while I prefer the image of a light saber.”
― David Brin, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?

“Excuse me for being greedy, but I want freedom and good government.”
― David Brin, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?

“Though his book vigorously promotes strong privacy, Miller notes that people routinely trade personal information for convenience or a few dollars of savings, even offering names of “friends and families” to commercial users, if it benefits them.”
― David Brin, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?