This is thought-provoking stuff on not only how close we could be coming to a "total surveillance" society, but how/why consumers would love it.
Jeff Jonas: Six Ticks till Midnight: One Plausible Journey from Here to a Total Surveillance Society.
The ACLU has recently announced a Surveillance Society Clock which depicts, in their view, how close we are to a total surveillance society. At the time of this writing the clock sits at 11:54pm – just six minutes from midnight! This clock got me thinking about what series of plausible events might lead up to total surveillance. Unfortunately, such an exercise turned out to be spooky because I quickly concluded that a total surveillance society is not only possible but a certainty. It will happen through a series of fairly quick small steps, it will be irreversible, and the real shocker is that I suspect consumers will find it "irresistible!"
The Six Ticks till Midnight... [click link above for rest of article]