Ponder of the Day.

Verus Gnomicon: The Book of Knowing True Names.

The reason, I think, science fiction is so bad at predicting the future is that it isn't about the future so much as it is a commentary on the present, a commentary that uses ad absurdem as a technique. (Well, not really, but this is a ponder and not a reasonable essay, right? I write down a lot of crap to help me think things out.)

Something I've been pondering lately is RFID. How horrible it could be. How horrible it is already. And I've been thinking about how (supposedly) in medieval times, people thought that if you knew the true name of something, you had power over it, and how, right now, this is very close to the truth.

The problem is that the problem is so close it's hard to make science fiction out of it.

Knowledge is power.
Knowledge wants to be free.
Power wants to be free.
Power corrupts.
Corruption is free.