Interessante artigo de 1967, publicado na revista Atlantis (via
Modern Mechanix), sobre a formação de uma vigilância computacional de dados pessoais e a elaboração de bancos de dados estatais. O artigo antecipa uma série de processos hoje corriqueiros e embora mantenha o seu foco no poder centralizador do Estado, antevê a atual proliferação acentrada de bancos de dados de toda sorte. Trechos:
"The modern computer is more than a sophisticated indexing or adding machine, or a miniaturized library; it is the keystone for a new communications medium whose capacities and implications we are only beginning to realize. In the foreseeable future, computer systems will be tied together by television, satellites, and lasers, and we will move large quantities of information over vast distances in imperceptible units of time."
"The very existence of a National Data Center may encourage certain federal officials to engage in questionable surveillance tactics. For example, optical scanners — devices with the capacity to read a variety of type fonts or handwriting at fantastic rates of speed — could be used to monitor our mail. By linking scanners with a computer system, the information drawn in by the scanner would be converted into machine-readable form and transferred into the subject’s file in the National Data Center."
