Title:
The Transparent Society
Author:
David Brin
Publisher:
Addison Wesley, 1998
ISBN
0-201-32802-X

Someone familiar with David Brin's books, especially The Postman and Earth, and many of his short stories, will have a fairly good idea what Brin believes in. Brin wears his political heart on his sleeve, whether he is writing fiction, or speaking at a science fiction convention. In The Transparent Society he makes plain much of what in the past he proposed in the guise of entertainment.

Brin suggests that we are standing at a metaphorical crossroads. In one direction lies an escalating arms race of encryption methods and decryption techniques, spy cameras and signal scramblers. In the other direction lies the possibility of openess, transparency, and accountability.

Brin argues against strong secrecy for a number of reasons. Some of them he brings up repeatedly. He points out that powerful entities, be they governments or corporations, must be held accountable to the public. He notes that strong secrecy would make law enforcement more difficult. He lists many difficulties that private individuals would encounter, trying to match the secrecy resources available to governments and corporations.

In all, he argues, the public would lose in a war of secrecy against governments and corporations.

But Brin is not asking us to usher in Huxley's Brave New World. Privacy is important, he agrees. Brin makes a careful distinction between personal privacy, and secrecy in the face of the need for accountability. Instead of trying to hide everything, Brin suggests, let's try not to hide anything. In particular, Brin wants to make sure that governments and corporations are held accountable to the public. This end, he argues, is defeated when people begin to rely too much on the shadow of secrecy.

Brin writes that the book is not intended to be a book of "grand prescriptions". Instead, Brin hopes to point out tools of "openness and light that have served us well in the past." Brin wants the dialog to continue, but this book is intended to show that there are other options that must be considered.

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