The Invisible Jail.

"There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement"

This statement, often contributed to William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, summarizes the way of 19th century scientist thought better than anything else. Nothing more to discover. Nothing more to invent. The Golden Era of Humankind is ’now’.

Lord Kelvin was one of the brightest minds of his time, renowned physicist, brilliant engineer and overall scientific prodigy, yet he (if he truly said aforementioned statement) was proven wrong by the XX century. Aqualung. Heavier-than-air aircraft (another impossible thing, as Lord Kelvin actually said in 1895). Penicillin. X-ray. Mass production of internal combustion engines. Wireless telegraphy. Nuclear energetics. Space travel. Deep diving. Computers. Humankind never strode the way it did during XX century.

But out of all great inventions and discoveries of the past century I personally consider The Web to be the greatest. In my humble opinion, Internet is not just the greatest invention of XX century – it is the greatest invention of our era. Automated global bank of all (well, almost all) knowledge, easily accessible, free for everyone to explore. All the knowledge in the world is at your hand. No more borders. No more boundaries. Just pure freedom of thought.

And the best jail ever.  Everything your move is remembered. Every your search is noted. You are free, yet you are under surveillance. There is one camera for every 32 people in UK (http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/mar/02/cctv-cameras-watching-surveillance), and every camera is connected to The Web – directly or through proxy connections. You are watched, every day, and your every step recorded, accessible for everyone powerful enough; number of cameras grows every day, new automatic control systems are put into operation. 

Think of Orwell, but with no Ministry of Love to be afraid of – instead, you don’t know what to be afraid of. All you know is that you’re defenseless, and be the need of someone to mean you harm, even slightest provocation (and, sometimes, even no provocation at all | http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/ williams/ williams020499.htm) would result in your downfall. Bit by bit, our every liberty is put at test, our every act of free will is controlled. If you can’t cope with inequity, and you can act, and you act, you’re declared a villain, you’re hunted, you’re persecuted (Three words: Assange, Manning, Snowden).

And the most brilliant part of this great deception – even with all the knowledge at your hand, you’ll never know the truth. It is buried deep under the lies, deceptions, kitten videos and pornography; you’ll never know the truth, you’ll never know right from wrong, even if you look straight at it. Everything is done for your good, every cease of your rights, every harsh move of every government is for your own good; and even if it’s not, you’ll never know; and even if you know, you’re powerless. In chess, such situation is called “zugzwang” – every move worsens your position; and the only winning move is not to play.