No Really, Trust Me

As I have stated before, trust is everything. Our society depends on it. When I drive on the highway at 65 mph, I'm trusting that the guy next to me isn't suicidal and won't swerve into me. I have a lockless mailbox, where my private mail sits outside for hours each day. Many functions in our world rely on trust to work. We need it, and I'm grateful we can still use it. To me, the inherent trust in society is part of what defines the human family.

But mankind is slowly changing. Chris Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg shows us a time in early computing when networks were built around openness and trust, and how malicious users broke that trust. As a result of increasing accounts of trust violation, computer users are forced to become more paranoid. Stronger passwords, better cryptography, and security awareness have become a natural part of modern computing. And it's not just the computers.  I am always looking for ways to live "smarter,"changing my lifestyle so it relies less and less on the trust of absolute strangers. I lock the doors, I keep personal information private, and I drive defensively. I don't talk to people in line at the store, and I am grateful for the elevator music that breaks the awkward silence. I am not alone. Society is evolving, increasing paranoia and self-protection, and loosing its trust. One day, we may "perfect" society so it no longer needs trust to work. I'm not sure that's the kind of human family I really want.