Just wanted to take a few minutes to bang out the post I meant to write last night, but was too tired after my caucus watching expidition.
My wife and I have this ongoing discussion that has been taking shape over several months, about this concept we call Little Sister.
The term is an overt reference to the orwellian term Big Borther, meant to symbolize the all watching eye of the government. Actually, the best way to describe it is that it is BBs counterpoint - the all watching eye of, well, everybody.
Little Sister is enabled by the cell phone camera. It waits for us to have our Macaca moment, then tells the whole words about it. Thus, we are assured through repeated examples of the failures of others that our own transgressions will be met with the swift dispassionate justice of the collective.
As an example, the other day I received an e-mail from a friend at work. It contained a video of a man crossing the street, wearing headphones. Then an SUV runs the light, and the resulting crash causes it to tumble inexorably towards the man, who is still blithely unaware of his impending doom. I can be sure of only three things: I will never knowingly run a red light, I will never cross the street wearing headphones, and there are many other people for whom seeing this clip will have a similar effect.
So it this how we acheive societal elevation? Is it a devolution into a world where the world privacy has no real meaning? Or, will we all become so used to the ubiquity of cameras that we simply learn to forgive one another of all but the most aggregious transgressions?
What do you think will come of this?
Update: Kudos to Cory Doctorow, who is quickly becoming my favorite author, for putting a eerily-similar-and-yet-completely-different spin on this timeless idea with his novel
Little Brother. Amazing work as always! My wife, 11 year old son, and I all absolutely loved it.