Hal Abelson - Blown to Bits

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Second Edition

Your Life, Liberty, and
Happiness After the
Digital Explosion

Second Edition

Hal Abelson
Ken Ledeen
Harry Lewis
Wendy Seltzer

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2020941961

Copyright 2021 Hal Abelson, Ken Ledeen, Harry Lewis, Wendy Seltzer

Published by Pearson Education, Inc.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License. To view a copy of this license visit (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) or send a letter to Creative Commons 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

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ISBN-13: 978-0-13-485001-6
ISBN-10: 0-13-485001-7

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To our children, Amanda, Jennifer, Joshua, Elaheh, Annie, and Elizabeth, who will see the world changed yet again in ways we cannot imagine.

To our grandchildren, Connor, Rory, Abigail, Cameron, Juliet, Robert, Alexandra, and Stella, who are living with those changes.

And to our students, who always challenge us to think more deeply.

Chapter 1 Digital Explosion
Why Is It Happening, and What Is at Stake?

Chapter 2 Naked in the Sunlight
Privacy Lost, Privacy Abandoned

Chapter 3 Who Owns Your Privacy?
The Commercialization of Personal Data

Chapter 4 Gatekeepers
Whos in Charge Here?

Chapter 5 Secret Bits
How Codes Became Unbreakable

Chapter 6 Balance Toppled
Who Owns the Bits?

Chapter 7 You Cant Say That on the Internet
Guarding the Frontiers of Digital Expression

Chapter 8 Bits in the Air
Old Metaphors, New Technologies, and Free Speech

Chapter 9 The Next Frontier
AI and the Bits World of the Future

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Chapter 1 Digital Explosion
Why Is It Happening, and What Is at Stake?

Chapter 2 Naked in the Sunlight
Privacy Lost, Privacy Abandoned

Chapter 3 Who Owns Your Privacy?
The Commercialization of Personal Data

Chapter 4 Gatekeepers
Whos in Charge Here?

Chapter 5 Secret Bits
How Codes Became Unbreakable

Chapter 6 Balance Toppled
Who Owns the Bits?

Chapter 7 You Cant Say That on the Internet
Guarding the Frontiers of Digital Expression

Chapter 8 Bits in the Air
Old Metaphors, New Technologies, and Free Speech

Chapter 9 The Next Frontier
AI and the Bits World of the Future

While we take full responsibility for any errors in the book, we owe thanks to a great many others for any enlightenment it may provide. Specifically, we are grateful to the following individuals, who commented on parts of the book while it was in draft or provided other valuable assistance: Lynn Abelson, Meg Ausman, Scott Bradner, Art Brodsky, Mike Carroll, Marcus Cohn, Frank Cornelius, Alex Curtis, Natasha Devroye, David Fahrenthold, Robert Faris, Johann-Christoph Freytag, Wendy Gordon, Tom Hemnes, Brian LaMacchia, Marshall Lerner, Anne Lewis, Elizabeth Lewis, Jessica Litman, Lory Lybeck, Fred vonLohmann, Marlyn McGrath, Michael Marcus, Michael Mitzenmacher, Steve Papa, Jonathan Pearce, Bradley Pell, Les Perelman, Thomas Roessler, Pamela Samuelson, Jeff Schiller, Katie Sluder, Gigi Sohn, Debora Spar, Ren Stein, Alex Tibbetts, Susannah Tobin, Salil Vadhan, David Warsh, Danny Weitzner, and Matt Welsh.