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Outline by Patrick Dean, April 2005

Brinn, David. 1998. The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom? Reading, MA: Perseus Books.

Ch.11 The Road of Openness
Pg. 325-335

The Garden of Liberty

Hear Brinn discusses the Greek myth of a farmer who makes a deal with Apollo and is granted a garden to speak freely in. Brinn argues that the only way in which Akademos, the farmer, can be sure of this liberty is to have a way to enforce the god’s promise. In order to do so, Brinn argues, Akademos must acquire and use knowledge. He then places this same principle in today’s increasing internationally liberal society. He argue for accountability of actions for society. Thus, knowledge will be required to enforce accountability.

A Shopping List for the Future

He argues here that if a transparent society is in the future, that the transition will not be easy. It will need to be guided with:

Predictions registries

Percolation

T-Cells

He argues that citizens will need to feel safe so they will not worry about who is watching them as much.

Negotiating With the Enemy

Here he simply states his purpose for the book to make people realize that the mythology: " that you can enduringly protect freedom, personal safety, and even privacy by preventing other people from knowing things." (pg 331)

The Flow of Information, the Flow of Life

Just suppose that society choose to live in world of accountability where privacy was not necessarily something a person was certain of, but held others accountable to ensure some notion of it. The flow of information does not mean that I must know everything about a particular person, just that when needed information is at my finger tips. The flow of information with accountability follows the flow of life.