Re: Conspiracy in the Surveillance Society

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In Message-ID:<gd8l1l$bb9$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Remus Shepherd <remus@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I'm plotting out a new story set in a future Earth that's near, but not
at, the Singularity. They have space travel, plentiful energy, maker machines
that can create consumer goods on demand, and various kinds of non-sentient
robots to provide labor.
<snip>>
Congregating seems difficult. Even if we have the mobility available
in the US today, a large group of people draws attention. Urban surveillance
will blow the secrecy off of any congregation in a city, and satellites
will locate any congregation outside of town. So...underground? Small
conspiracy cells only?

Sporting events, parades, or anything else that generates a
crowd. Sports is good because it won't be strange for the same
people to be at many of the same events.

Communications is tougher. You can't trust analog (landline phone),
psuedo-analog (cell phone) or digital (internet) communications. Paper
mail would work until you are under suspicion, then it's trivial to monitor
that also. Encryption might hide what you're saying, but not who you're
saying it to or how often.

Unless they have quantum computers (and maybe even then) good
encryption is way ahead of decryption. So, the *content* of the
messages is safe. As Don Bruder said, steganography and remailers
can take care of much of the rest. The one thing I'd add is that
the messages could go to various "free download" sites, rather
than to individuals. Thus, you'd send the encrypted messages
concealed in music, pictures, or videos sent to the future
equivalents of Usenet, Flickr, or Youtube. Note that this
technique is suspected, even today.

--
Arthur T. - ar23hur "at" intergate "dot" com
Looking for a z/OS (IBM mainframe) systems programmer position
.

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