How We Live Now

John Twelve Hawks describes the facts that shaped the fictional vision behind his blockbuster book "The Traveler's". If you enjoyed the book its worth 50 cents to learn the biases that shaped Hawk's thinking. This reader believes there are two types of freedom: "freedom of" and "freedom from" and they are often mutually exclusive. Hawk's novels explore how high technology and a desire to be "safe" have pushed society towards "freedom from" fear at the expense of "freedom from" choice. As a high tech computer scientist who has used packet sniffers and key stroke loggers I can tell you that most people would be very frightened to learn how easy it is for bad people to abuse technology for nefarious purposes. Most frightening is when our government abuses these tools under the guise of creating a safe world.

First of all, the content of the essay is true, frightening, and hopefully will get people to stop and think about all these "measures against terrorism" we are now taking.

Second, I can't help but wonder how the way of publishing this essay goes squarely against everything that he is warning us of in it. The essay can only be bought (why?) from Amazon, using your creditcard, with a valid billing address. It makes you wonder...

I an a great fan of 'The Traveller' - It is one of those books that make you think as you are being entertained.
Had wanted to get How We Live Now, and did so, and it is amazing. Shows what is happening in our every day lives.
Makes you think about if all this info was in the wrong hands, like The Brethren.
I look forward to more from John Twelve Hawks. Makes you do a lot of wondering.

A wonderful mix of fact & fiction. Literate yet full of suspense and adventure. A good read that makes you think.

OK, I grant Mr. Hawks that too much information in the wrong hands can present terrible and awful possibilities. However, doesn't this present a perfect example of the radar detector problem? First you have the radar then the radar detector then the radar-detector detector and so on ad infinitum. There will always be examples of a disconnect as society adapts to new technologies but the basic principles, as set forth in the British common law and U.S. Constitution, for example--remain perfectly capable of dealing with technological advancement.

Did folks at the turn of the century believe that the automobile would be the death of society? It must have been a staggering shock as horsepower was phased out in favor of noisy and dangerous automobiles. No doubt many naysayers believed that the car would be a deadly and unwelcome addition to city roads; however, a hundred years later we have developed much safer vehicles and a vast supporting infrastructure to control their usage. Is it beyond reason to imagine that society will deal equally well with the benefits and burdens of information technology?

Checks and balances. If our financial information is increasingly fragile then make the ability to correct the various databases easier. If our DNA can be instantly accessible, well doesn't that protect the innocent as often as it may nab the guilty? I trust that somebody has come up with a way to fool just about any technology. In fact, who is to say that the governments of the world haven't already figured out how to factor incredibly large numbers instantaneously? Have we learned from the example of the Enigma?

Any technology can be used to subjugate and serve nefarious ends. However, the very nature of technological advance is driven by the desire to counteract technological advantages. I suspect that Mr. Hawks' concerns, though real, are temporary. Again, how many times in the 70s were we told that the lack of oil and advancing population would be the death of civilization? Yet now, paradoxically, Europeans are an endangered species precisely due to a low birthrate. Oil production is also at an all time high. It is in our nature to fear the unknown but history teaches that society quickly learns how to properly control the new powers that technology provides and to adapt to any new challenge presented. A little more optimism please.