研究生英语高级教程-1单元-Move-Over--Big-Brother.docxVIP

Move Over, Big Brother1.Living without privacy, even in his bedroom, was no problem for Louis XIV. In fact, it was a way for the French king to demonstrate his absolute authority over even the most powerful members of the aristocracy. Each morning, they gathered to see the Sun King get up, pray, perform his bodily functions, choose his wig and so on.2.Will this past—life without privacy—be our future? Many futurists, science fiction writers and privacy advocates believe so. Big Brother, they have long warned, is watching. Closed-circuit television cameras often track your moves; your mobile phone reveals your location; your transit pass and credit cards leave digital trails. Now there is the possibility that citizens are being watched.3.But in the past few years, something strange has happened. Thanks to the spread of mobile phones, digital cameras and the internet, surveillance technology has become far more widely available. Bruce Schneier, a security guru, argues that a combination of forces—the miniaturisation of surveillance technologies, the falling price of digital storage and ever more sophisticated systems able to sort through large amounts of information—means that “surveillance abilities that used to be limited to governments are now, or soon will be, in the hands of everyone.”4.Digital technologies, such as camera phones and the internet, are very different from their analogue counterparts. A digital image, unlike a conventional photograph, can be quickly and easily copied and distributed around the world. Another important difference is that digital devices are far more widespread. Most people take their camera phones with them everywhere.5.The speed and ubiquity of digital cameras lets them do things that film-based cameras could not. In October, for example, the victim of a robbery in Nashville, Tennessee, used his camera-phone to take pictures of the thief and his getaway vehicle. The images were shown to the police, who broadcast descriptions of the