How life is imitating science fiction in Egypt
Walter Jon Williams — "Walter Jon Williams' Deep State, out next week, picks up the themes of viral marketing and social media from his previous novel This Is Not A Game. And a lot of the stuff that Williams wrote about is very similar to what's been happening in Egypt and Tunisia. Is Williams a prophet of the internet age, or just lucky? Here's his take on what happened. As I watch the Egyptian demonstrations on CNN, I'm fascinated. A people-power revolution against an Arab autocrat was completely unknown until a couple weeks ago, when the Jasmine Revolution pitched Tunisia's Zine Ben Ali out of his luxe presidential office and into exile. As I write this, it seems as if another people-power revolution is on the verge of success in Egypt. I'm fascinated as I watch, but I am not surprised. I knew that this was going to happen.
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Oh, I didn't know it would happen in Egypt, or first in Tunisia. But I was very confident it would happen somewhere, sufficiently confident that I wrote the blueprint for this type of revolution in my novel, Deep State, which started appearing in stores just as insurrection exploded across Egypt. Very interesting timing, this. Once established, the Internet is like a river: it tends to flow around obstacles. The Chinese government has employs tens of thousands of civil servants to maintain what has been called the Great Firewall of China, its massive attempt to restrict information and discussion among Chinese. But any Chinese hacker worth his salt knows about proxy servers and software that will enable him to conceal his IP address, and that hacker will flow around the Great Wall to do his surfing and communication in near safety. Anyone with access to the Internet can find out what's going on around the world whether his government wants him to or not. Anyone who wants to keep their discussions and interests private has a very good chance of succeeding even against so formidable an obstacle as the Great Wall. The tools are there, ranging from Freenet to Tor to darknets..." Rest of article here:
http://io9.com/#!5751156/how-my-new-science-fiction-novel-predicted-the-egyptian-uprising
Walter Jon Williams — "Walter Jon Williams' Deep State, out next week, picks up the themes of viral marketing and social media from his previous novel This Is Not A Game. And a lot of the stuff that Williams wrote about is very similar to what's been happening in Egypt and Tunisia. Is Williams a prophet of the internet age, or just lucky? Here's his take on what happened. As I watch the Egyptian demonstrations on CNN, I'm fascinated. A people-power revolution against an Arab autocrat was completely unknown until a couple weeks ago, when the Jasmine Revolution pitched Tunisia's Zine Ben Ali out of his luxe presidential office and into exile. As I write this, it seems as if another people-power revolution is on the verge of success in Egypt. I'm fascinated as I watch, but I am not surprised. I knew that this was going to happen.
Full size
Oh, I didn't know it would happen in Egypt, or first in Tunisia. But I was very confident it would happen somewhere, sufficiently confident that I wrote the blueprint for this type of revolution in my novel, Deep State, which started appearing in stores just as insurrection exploded across Egypt. Very interesting timing, this. Once established, the Internet is like a river: it tends to flow around obstacles. The Chinese government has employs tens of thousands of civil servants to maintain what has been called the Great Firewall of China, its massive attempt to restrict information and discussion among Chinese. But any Chinese hacker worth his salt knows about proxy servers and software that will enable him to conceal his IP address, and that hacker will flow around the Great Wall to do his surfing and communication in near safety. Anyone with access to the Internet can find out what's going on around the world whether his government wants him to or not. Anyone who wants to keep their discussions and interests private has a very good chance of succeeding even against so formidable an obstacle as the Great Wall. The tools are there, ranging from Freenet to Tor to darknets..." Rest of article here:
http://io9.com/#!5751156/how-my-new-science-fiction-novel-predicted-the-egyptian-uprising
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