"While you were out we searched your home..."

Revolutions are unpredictable and can take a long time.  1984 might mark an important moment when the internet was taking off, but the IT revolution which some people are complaining about probably won't be finished until we have mutually assured transparency for all.  Until then, things could get pretty ugly.

In the middle of a revolution, as in the eye of a storm, the world can seem almost calm. Today we witness the Information Revolution, deceptively quiet, yet changing the world and much of what we once held dear, including our privacy. Some people are outraged to find that privacy can no longer be assumed or warranted. We appear to be moving toward a new world of increasing transparency in which we will say goodbye to thousands of years in which secrecy was something actually possible. We are leaving behind the Age of Secrets and entering the Age of Transparency. Does anyone still believe that privacy is going to be technologically possible in the twenty-first century?

The weapons arms competitions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the 20th century culminated in the nuclear arms race. The great irony that emerged from these competitions is called the Security Paradox, to wit, the harder one works to obtain security from the threat of a perceived enemy, the less security one actually ends up having. Every advance in warfare technology frightens and ultimately spurs another round of advances made by the enemy, ultimately leading to a world in which mutually assured destruction by accident or blunder guarantees that there is little security for anyone.

Now we are engaged in a struggle to preserve our personal privacy against the NSA and other prying institutions which are penetrating our personal shields. And just as the security paradox led to an end-stage of mutually assured destruction, so too will our quest for privacy drive us toward another inevitability, a new world of mutually assured transparency.