Daedalus was the mythical engineer and artificer of the classical world. What would he do with digital tools and digital concerns?

Privacy Rights, Operational Data, and the US Government

July 05, 2010 in Basics, Fourth Amendment, Musings, Privacy

Several readers have written me that privacy has no place in US Law, and was only discovered as an emanation from a penumbra (in Justice Douglas’s words). I think that this is a profound misreading of the constitution, arising from an awful ruling in a good cause in the 1870’s. The Slaughterhouse Case created a framework that profoundly limited the privileges of citizenship, gutting a key component of the 14th amendment, and by implication, eliminating the 9th amendment from any real meaning.

The 9th amendment, the shortest and simplest of the bill of rights...

Spam & Smart Grid Operations, Privacy & Civil Rights

February 23, 2010 in Fourth Amendment, Privacy, Security, Smart Grid

Spam has changed how we think about email, and automated monitoring and control needs to change how we think about privacy. If you make something very much easier and cheaper, it is no longer what it once was. Smart phones, smart buildings, and smart grids are now at the center of privacy law. Privacy is the ground upon which the battle for the preservation of the 4th amendment will be won or lost.

A serious of court decisions, each looking more to a desired end than to the constitution, are using technology to redefine what “reasonable” means in the 4th amendment to the US Constitution. If we are not careful, smart grids might destroy the last remaining realms...

New Daedalus

Daedalus designed buildings, automated statues, and built wings for human flight. Daedalus worked by eye and hand, his designs scratched with a stylus on wax tablets. Until recently, we merely perfected his means of work, using better pens, and paper, and finally drawing on computers.

It is only recently that we have begun to leave the methods of Daedalus behind.

Simulations and digital twins guide each decision. Intelligence, or at least behaviors, imbue each system and device. Cyberphysical systems replace household servants and chauffeurs, operate factories, and manage energy logistics. The most pressing concerns are how intelligent systems and buildings will respond to us, and to each other.