While browsing some random blogs I came across a post on the adventures of artist/academic Hasan Elahi, who once had to deal with a false alarm at the FBI, which eventually gave him the idea for a ridiculously interesting project: putting up his whole life on the internet! On googling for more on this guy, I found that incidentally, The Colbert Report had him as a guest on the show just a few days ago: check out the wildly funny interview! The logic is impeccable:
If being candid about his flights could clear his name, why not be open about everything? “I’ve discovered that the best way to protect your privacy is to give it away,” he says [Wired]
I have to admit, nearly the same thought crossed my mind the last time I was flying back into the country and had a rather frustrating encounter with my “special registration” officer at the airport. Elahi’s work, nevertheless, raises some very thought-provoking questions about the intersections of the virtual and the real, and the meaning (and economics!) of privacy and intelligence in the cyber-age. Check out his website: www.elahi.org. There are pictures of all the meals he’s eaten over the course of three years, all the airports he’s been through, and (check this) all the toilets he’s been in! (Looks like he’s in Europe right now).
