Politics: Participatory Panopticon
A 2007 Ten-Year Forecast Perspective
Camera phones, webcams, and other mobile network devices have become increasingly commonplace. While the initial use of these devices may have been to trade messages and humorous or embarrassing images among friends, wireless information and sensory devices have acquired greater social—and political—importance over the last couple years. They are the early manifestation of the participatory panopticon, a world in which we record our lives as well as the lives of those around us. everything is potentially on the record, often from multiple perspectives; not only is privacy a thing of the past but potentially secrecy as well. Such a world isn’t necessarily intentional; instead, it’s the emergent result of individually reasonable technological and social choices, choices we’re making right now.
Publication Date
2007
(Public Release: 2008)
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