already happening - 2011

It starts the day you're born

You're given a name and a number

You're photographed and filed into their system

There's a process for raising and educating

School and college, work and religion

That society's agreed upon generations ago

But you don't have to

Find another country with better rules

Move to the woods, build a shack and grow your own food

But someone will still be watching

Your neighbor is listening, like their neighbor is watching them

The government sends surveyors and census and infrared mapping and global positioning satellites and cameras from space

But people don't dream of quietly shrinking out of sight

People see sports stars and leaders of industry and renowned writers and influential politicians and famous musicians and inspirational teachers and Nobel prize winning researchers

And you wonder, is it all worth it?

Could I be a part of that?

Yet your every misstep and mistake will be remembered

Histories are a collogue of family, friends, professors, neighbors, teachers, employers, enemies, acquaintances, people you wave to on the street, that guy that hated the fact that you weren't that into the girl he couldn't get, the co-worker still mad you got the big account or project, that one person that always tried so hard to be better than you

And eventually someone will try to use it all against you

It's inescapable, unchangeable

If you want to live in a house, you better have good credit, a steady job, references, a traceable past

If you want a respectable career, you better have a clean record, a lengthy education, a specialization, awards and recommendations, and you better pass all their tests

And don't ever get too big

Every web site you've ever visited, every email you've ever sent, movie you've rented, book you've checked out, CD you're bought, or anything purchased really, every picture someone else has taken of you, every phone conversation is stored in a database somewhere

Even if its not legal yet, the system is still run by the unofficial court of public opinion, the biased gossip of anyone who's seen you walking down the street in a bad mood or arguing with your girlfriend, or talked to your nemesis from high school or just been cut off in traffic

They have cameras smaller than the head of a pin

Microscopic nano-bots, around the size of a cell

Scanners that identify multi-dimensional shapes, types of matter, movement patterns

And its all connected

Through web sites and phone calls and word of mouth

Through digital archives of every possible type, that are around sometimes your whole life

There might be brain wave scanners

There might be emotion analyzers that gauge how you feel while you watch TV

They might be cloning you and genetically engineering you better, right now, while you're not watching

And this is only the tip of the glacier

This is the information that they want you to know about

This is just enough not to scare you too bad, but there's no telling what's to come

Maybe you should just run for it, right now, before it's too late

But know this, every opinion you've ever had, every thought can be found out by someone

Someone can read your mind