Shockwave Rider

I was reading this article:

Surveillance State democracy
As the FBI seeks full access to all forms of Internet communication, it is not voters who need to be convinced
http://www.salon.com/2012/05/06/surveillance_state_democracy/

when I was reminded of one of my favorite books called “The Shockwave Rider” by John Brunner. Written in the early ’70’s there are very few anachronisms and it could easily have been written last week. The book is available (legally, I think) as a PDF, so for those of you interested you can get it just by searching on the title and adding ‘pdf’. For those of you who can’t muster the effort, the upshot is that the government has been taken over by organized criminals and operated for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many (any of this sound the least bit familiar?). It is about a new class of paranoia: being aware that information exists about you, but being unable to access it or correct it. Ever try to fix a problem with your credit report? If you have, then you are aware of the looking-glass weirdness where an organization that has no legal standing whatsoever, yet has near total control over what happens to your fiscal life is none-the-less almost impossible to communicate with. I talk about this here.

Author: Tfoui

He who spews forth data that could be construed as information...