"Our technological powers increase, but the side effects and potential hazards also escalate." -- Alvin Toffler

Recent, and rather scary, reads came from Char.

I started with Dragnet Nation: a Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance, by Julia Angwin. From cameras in public places, to every keystroke on a computer being monitored, to drones flying over the backyard, pretty much nothing is private anymore. It's amazing how much information is gathered, and how complicated it is to find out where and if there is a way to get off that list. Well written and easy to read, the author takes us along on her efforts to reduce the amount of information that is available about her.

Much of the information gathered and stored can be used to track us ... what we buy, eat, what sites we visit (and how often), political leanings, travel, and so on. That information is then used to customize what we might see in an internet search, what ads appear on the sides of our screens, leading to a personal and rather telescopic view of the news stories we see, the charities we might be interested in supporting, that sort of thing. Eli Pariser, the author of The Filter Bubble: How The New Personalized Web is Changing What We Read and How We Think, believes this reduces our awareness of what is going on around us, eliminates the stories that might shock us, cause us to rethink something, or even try a new book or movie.

Identity Theft Alert: 10 Rules You Must Follow to Protect Yourself From American's #1 Crime, by Steve Weisman is, as the title tells us, about identity theft. It explains how it is done and then ways to protect yourself. It made me much more aware of things I would not have considered a risk before, such as a photocopy machine. These now have memory chips, which makes all the scans accessible even long after something has been photocopied.

These books brought to mind Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson. It too, was a warning, an environmental warning. She made us aware of what the chemicals in synthetic pesticides (mostly DDT at the time) were doing, most especially to birds. (Hence the title, 'silent' spring). It was a long, hard battle with the chemical companies and it became the inspiration for the first grassroots movement that led to the creation of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency.

It has been longer than I care to acknowledge since I read 1984 (George Orwell) and Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) but I remember two things: Big Brother is Watching You, and, how everyone was electronically connected by headsets and big screens. We don't need the big screens (although they are certainly available) but it is possible to be connected and in front of a screen at any and all times. The authors weren't far off the mark.

Reading Hermit With Dog