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"None of us, no matter what continent or island or ice cap, asked to be born in the first place, and that even somebody as old as I am, which is 80, only just got here."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
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| Data Haven | ||
| A place where data that cannot legally be kept can be stashed for later use; an offshore web host. |
This is an interesting topic; companies often need information that they are not legally allowed to know. For example, some hospitals are not allowed to mark patients as HIV positive (because it stigmatizes patients); staff members create codes or other ways so they can take the necessary steps to protect themselves. This idea of information being lifted clear of the data networks is also explored at length in Shockwave Rider, by John Brunner.
| …Laura had never realized the profit to be gained by evading the developed world's privacy laws. Thousands of legitimate companies maintained dossiers on individuals: employee records, medical histories, credit transactions. In the Net economies, business was impossible without such information. In the legitimate world, companies purged this information periodically, as required by law. But not all of it was purged. Reams of it ended up in the data havens, passed on through bribery of clerks, through taps of datalines, and by outright commercial espionage… The havens were bootstrapping their way up to Big Brother status… |
| Technovelgy from Islands in the Net,
by Bruce Sterling. Published by William Morrow in 1988 Additional resources -
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If information is really the currency of the future, why not keep a copy of your data stashed in an offshore web host, one that is not recorded. In the event that you lose your company and its information, you could resurrect it from your other host.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Islands in the Net
More Ideas
and Technology by Bruce Sterling
Tech news articles related to Islands in the Net
Tech news articles related to works by Bruce Sterling
Data Haven-related
news articles:
- The Pirate Bay Wants Data Haven On Sealand
- Google Navy: Water-Based Data Centers
- Cultybraggan Nuclear Bunker Perfect For Data Crypt
| Project Silica Offers 'Long-Term' Digital Storage |
| Lonestar Offers Lunar Storage For Ultimate In Security |
| 100X Improvement In DNA Information Storage |
| Twist Bioscience High Density Digital Data On DNA |
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'Space-sickness is one of the most unpleasant sensations that a human being can experience. Not all are subject to it...'
'...I saw a nice black heavy-looking cloud sailing by just now, and I can get the electrical machine out in five minutes to draw it down.'
'From a distance it could resolve the cosmic rays reflected from various substances.'
'The answer to the dumb student's prayer.'
'He had travelled the space-lanes of the solar system for the greater part of his life...'
'The dinner was excellent. It was completely vegetarian — grown in specially prepared gardens in this Moon base...'
'Telepaths had their sensitiveness enlarged to an immense range by the pin-sets, which were telepathic amplifiers adapted to the mammal mind.'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.'
'But he didn't get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts. George winced...'
