In New York and Baltimore, police cameras scan public areas twenty-four hours a day. Huge commercial databases track you finances and sell that information to anyone willing to pay. Host sites on the World Wide Web record every page you view, and smart” toll roads know where you drive. Every day, new technology nibbles at our privacy.Does that make you nervous? David Brin is worried, but not just about privacy. He fears that society will overreact to these technologies by restricting the flow of information, frantically enforcing a reign of secrecy. Such measures, he warns, won't really preserve our privacy. Governments, the wealthy, criminals, and the techno-elite will still find ways to watch us. But we'll have fewer ways to watch them. We'll lose the key to a free society: accountability. The Transparent Society is a call for reciprocal transparency.” If police cameras watch us, shouldn't we be able to watch police stations? If credit bureaus sell our data, shouldn't we know who buys it? Rather than cling to an illusion of anonymity-a historical anomaly, given our origins in close-knit villages-we should focus on guarding the most important forms of privacy and preserving mutual accountability. The biggest threat to our freedom, Brin warns, is that surveillance technology will be used by too few people, now by too many.A society of glass houses may seem too fragile. Fearing technology-aided crime, governments seek to restrict online anonymity; fearing technology-aided tyranny, citizens call for encrypting all data. Brins shows how, contrary to both approaches, windows offer us much better protection than walls; after all, the strongest deterrent against snooping has always been the fear of being spotted. Furthermore, Brin argues, Western culture now encourages eccentricity-we're programmed to rebel! That gives our society a natural protection against error and wrong-doing, like a body's immune system. But social T-cells” need openness to spot trouble and get the word out. The Transparent Society is full of such provocative and far-reaching analysis.The inescapable rush of technology is forcing us to make new choices about how we want to live. This daring book reminds us that an open society is more robust and flexible than one where secrecy reigns. In an era of gnat-sized cameras, universal databases, and clothes-penetrating radar, it will be more vital than ever for us to be able to watch the watchers. With reciprocal transparency we can detect dangers early and expose wrong-doers. We can gauge the credibility of pundits and politicians. We can share technological advances and news. But all of these benefits depend on the free, two-way flow of information.

The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom?

History

DAVID BRIN

World

Addison-Wesley

bestselling, award-winning futurist David Brin returns to globe-spanning, high concept SF with Existence. 
Gerald Livingston is an orbital garbage collector. For a hundred years, people have been abandoning things in space, and someone has to clean it up. But there’s something spinning a little bit higher than he expects, something that isn’t on the decades’ old orbital maps. An hour after he grabs it and brings it in, rumors fill Earth’s infomesh about an "alien artifact". Thrown into the maelstrom of worldwide shared experience, the Artifact is a game-changer—a message in a bottle, an alien capsule that wants to communicate. The world reacts as humans always do: with fear and hope and selfishness and love and violence. And insatiable curiosity.

Existence - Limited Edition 3d Cover

Orbit

Bestselling, award-winning futurist David Brin returns to globe-spanning, high concept SF with Existence. Gerald Livingston is an orbital garbage collector. For a hundred years, people have been abandoning things in space, and someone has to clean it up. But there's something spinning a little bit higher than he expects, something that isn't on the decades' old orbital maps. An hour after he grabs it and brings it in, rumors fill Earth's infomesh about an "alien artifact." Thrown into the maelstrom of worldwide shared experience, the Artifact is a game-changer. A message in a bottle; an alien capsule that wants to communicate. The world reacts as humans always do: with fear and hope and selfishness and love and violence. And insatiable curiosity.

Existence

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

Postman

Earth

Science & Math

The universe of the mind is a limitless expanse of wonders, filled with worlds and secrets that cannot be fully explored within the pages of a single novel. Avid readers of science fiction have long appreciated the myriad joys of returning to fictional galaxies already experienced; delighting in the ever-unfolding mysteres of Frank Herbert's Dune or Asimov's Foundation series, for example.
In Far Horizons--edited by acclaimed author Robert Silverberg-- a veritable "Who's Who" of science fiction's most beloved and highly honored writers once again revisit the remarkable worlds they created and made famous. 
Ursula K. Le Guin sends representatives of the Ekumen into the violent later years of a planetary civil war. Dan Simmons once again billiantly mixes allegory and space adventure in his dangerous, religion-dominated cosmos of Hyperion. Greg Bear reexplores his artificial universe, "The Way", from Eon, Eternity and Legacy.
Orson Scott Card recounts the momentous first meeting of his time-and-planet-hopping protagonist Ender Wiggin with Ender's computer based, soon to be companion, Jane.Gregory Benford rockets us back to the Galactic Center, Anne McCaffrey's Ship Who Sang sings again, and Joe Haldeman's Forever War rages on eternally. Here, also, are new stories by David Brin, Nancy Kress, Frederik Pohl, and Robert Silverberg himself--each venturing further into univestigated corners of familiar galaxies to delve into the perilous mystery of being human.
Perhaps the greatest concentration of science fiction talent ever in one volume, Far Horizons is an unprecedented masterpiece -- one that reopens vast empires of imagination and adventure to new explorations and appreciations. It is a major SF event, sure to bring unparalleled joy to the hearts of serious fans everywhere.

Far Horizons:: All New Tales From The Greatest Worlds Of Science Fiction

URSULA K. LE GUIN

GREGORY BENFORD

ORSON SCOTT CARD

ROBERT SILVERBERG

Nancy Kress

Joe, Haldeman

ANNE MCCAFFREY

dan-simmons

frederik-pohl

United States

Harper/Voyager

A collection of futuristic visions in which robots become the ally, heir, and enemy of humankind represents the works of noted science fiction writers--including Frederik Pohl, Philip K. Dick, Robert Sheckley, and Asimov himself

Robots - Isaac Asimov's Wonderful Worlds of Science Fiction #9

ROBERT SHECKLEY

Clifford D.Simak

George H. Smith

Harry Slesar

C.M. Kornbluth

Thomas Easton

Signet

Exploring various alternatives to the information age, a collection of thought-provoking short stories speculates about a future without cyberspace or high-tech machines in works by Stephen Baxter, David Brin, Michael Swanwick, and other leading authors. Reprint.

Live Without a Net

Mike Resnick

S.M. Stirling

CHARLES STROSS

RUDY RUCKER

Paul Di Filippo

Michael Swanwick

stephen-baxter

Short Stories & Anthologies

Roc+

In the middle of the twenty-first century, the multinational crew of scientists stationed on Halley's Comet set aside personal prejudices and unite to survive in the bleak, ice-covered environment and transform it into a source of life

Heart of the Comet

Bantam/Spectra

Murasaki

After twenty years of travel, the first ships bearing humans arrive in the Murasaki system, where they encounter the inhabitants of Murasaki's two mysterious worlds and where they unravel the mysteries of an alien ecosystem

MURASAKI

Greg, Bear

Frederick Pohl

POUL ANDERSON

Spectra

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Books by DAVID BRIN