rigor in science

I remember thinking, years ago, how the whole ECHELON conspiracy theory could be nothing but bullshit, since there would be no way for whoever ran the thing to analyze all the data it captured. The last couple of years made me rethink that notion, though, since not a day seems to go by without someone proposing some map the size of the world (original, in Spanish, here). This time, it’s that bastion of democracy, supreme commander of the free and the brave, Dubya himself:

The Bush administration has accelerated its Internet surveillance push by proposing that Web sites must keep records of who uploads photographs or videos in case police determine the content is illegal and choose to investigate, CNET News.com has learned.

Excellent timing, if nothing else, seeing as how people are warning there may not be enough space to hold all the information we’re currently producing. Obviously, it shouldn’t take long for people to start thinking about Brazil analogies.

In fact, when things like these start happening, even such analogies might be unnecessary:

Imagine a government agency, in a bureaucratic foul-up, accidentally gives you a copy of a document marked “top secret.” And it contains a log of some of your private phone calls.

You read it and ponder it and wonder what it all means. Then, two months later, the FBI shows up at your door, demands the document back and orders you to forget you ever saw it.

Not to worry, though: the Bush administration is considering a ban on social networks for kids on libraries and schools. That should really help slow down the amount of traffic to monitor, and make the mapworld a little smaller. A very comforting idea when you have judges throwing teachers in jail for not knowing how to fight adware.

And still, no one understood the net. “Why go?“, they asked.