Actually, I haven't been there, which is why I expressed an interest. I have a number of friends, mostly academics who have visited friends and done research, so I'd naturally turn to them for suggestions and introductions.
As for the paranoia aspect, I should think that anyone who has been in intelligence carries a streak of it for the rest of his or her life. A person who has left the profession would still be more likely to shred personal papers than you and I, for example.
On the other hand, the ease of access in cyberspace to all kinds of information about all of us should give all of us a bit of pause. A recent article in "Foreign Affairs" mentioned an upcoming book from Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig, Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. Lessig points out that the architecture of cyberspace is highly influenced by commerce and government, "both of which have an interest in knowing as much as they can about what people are doing and where. So it's not an accident that the emerging Internet architecture makes it easier to track people and collect private data, because tracking people is what governments like and collecting private data is what commerce likes."
Consider this for a moment: Just recently, I tried to access SI from a friend's PC and couldn't; I had been able to do it before, so I was surprised. Then I discovered the reason: He had disabled "cookies"! Not long ago, one did not have to accept cookies to get onto SI. Hmmmm.... |
