I can’t pimp this guy enough.
David Brin wrote the book The Transparent Society, which is a frightening and enlightening examination of the choices our society will face as surveillance technology improves. He strikes the balance between security and transparency and demonstrates that security is only truly attainable by allowing full transparency of our institutions. In the wake of the NSA stories of today, it is a highly recommended read. And anyone who’s come by this site knows that I’m big into Glenn Greenwald as well, I think the topics that Greenwald discusses in How Would a Patriot Act? intersect perfectly with Brin’s perspective.
I got into him somehow when I was first browsing iTunes podcast directory. I can’t find it on iTunes, but the lecture that got me interested in Brin can be found here, and for a shorter bit of his stuff, here he is on YouTube:
lethologica 