Introduction

I wrote Little Brother in a white-hot fury between May 7, 2007 and July 2,2007: exactly eight weeks from the day I thought it up to the day I fin-ished it (Alice, to whom this book is dedicated¹, had to put up with meclacking out the final chapter at 5AM in our hotel in Rome, where wewere celebrating our anniversary). I'd always dreamed of having a bookjust materialize, fully² formed, and come pouring out of my fingertips, nosweat and fuss — but it wasn't nearly as much fun as I'd thought itwould be. There were days when I wrote 10,000 words, hunching³ overmy keyboard in airports, on subways, in taxis — anywhere I could type.
The book was trying to get out of my head, no matter what, and I missedso much sleep and so many meals that friends started to ask if I wasunwell.
When my dad was a young university student in the 1960s, he was oneof the few "counterculture" people who thought computers were a goodthing. For most young people, computers represented the de-humaniza-tion of society. University students were reduced to numbers on apunchcard, each bearing the legend "DO NOT BEND, SPINDLE, FOLDOR MUTILATE," prompting some of the students to wear pins that said,"I AM A STUDENT: DO NOT BEND, SPINDLE, FOLD OR MUTILATEME." Computers were seen as a means to increase the ability of the au-thorities to regiment⁴ people and bend them to their will.
When I was a 17, the world seemed like it was just going to get morefree. The Berlin Wall was about to come down. Computers — which hadbeen geeky and weird⁵ a few years before — were everywhere, and themodem I'd used to connect to local bulletin board systems was now con-necting me to the entire world through the Internet and commercial on-line services like GEnie⁶. My lifelong fascination⁷ with activist⁸ causes wentinto overdrive as I saw how the main difficulty in activism — organizing— was getting easier by leaps and bounds (I still remember the first timeI switched from mailing out a newsletter with hand-written addresses tousing a database with mail-merge). In the Soviet⁹ union, communicationstools were being used to bring information — and revolution — to thefarthest-flung corners of the largest authoritarian¹⁰ state the Earth had everseen.
But 17 years later, things are very different. The computers I love arebeing co-opted, used to spy on us, control us, snitch on us. The NationalSecurity Agency has illegally wiretapped the entire USA and gottenaway with it. Car rental¹¹ companies and mass transit¹² and traffic4authorities are watching where we go, sending us automated¹³ tickets,finking us out to busybodies, cops and bad guys who gain illicit¹⁴ access totheir databases. The Transport Security Administration maintains a "no-fly" list of people who'd never been convicted of any crime, but who arenevertheless considered too dangerous to fly. The list's contents aresecret. The rule that makes it enforceable is secret. The criteria¹⁵ for beingadded to the list are secret. It has four-year-olds on it. And US senators.
And decorated veterans — actual war heroes.
The 17 year olds I know understand to a nicety just how dangerous acomputer can be. The authoritarian nightmare of the 1960s has comehome for them. The seductive little boxes on their desks and in theirpockets watch their every move, corral them in, systematically¹⁶ deprivingthem of those new freedoms I had enjoyed and made such good use of inmy young adulthood¹⁷.
What's more, kids were clearly being used as guinea-pigs for a newkind of technological¹⁸ state that all of us were on our way to, a worldwhere taking a picture was either piracy¹⁹ (in a movie theater or museumor even a Starbucks), or terrorism (in a public place), but where we couldbe photographed, tracked and logged hundreds of times a day by everytin-pot dictator, cop, bureaucrat²⁰ and shop-keeper. A world where anymeasure, including torture, could be justified²¹ just by waving your handsand shouting "Terrorism! 9/11! Terrorism!" until all dissent²² fell silent.
We don't have to go down that road.
If you love freedom, if you think the human condition is dignified²³ byprivacy, by the right to be left alone, by the right to explore your weirdideas provided you don't hurt others, then you have common cause withthe kids whose web-browsers and cell phones are being used to lockthem up and follow them around.
If you believe that the answer to bad speech is more speech — not cen-sorship — then you have a dog in the fight.
If you believe in a society of laws, a land where our rulers have to tellus the rules, and have to follow them too, then you're part of the samestruggle that kids fight when they argue for the right to live under thesame Bill of Rights that adults have.
This book is meant to be part of the conversation about what an in-formation society means: does it mean total control, or unheard-ofliberty? It's not just a noun, it's a verb, it's something you do.

1 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

2 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

3 hunching   

隆起（hunch的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• She leaned forward, hunching over the desk. 她身体前倾，伏在写字台上。

4 regiment   

n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制

参考例句：

• As he hated army life,he decide to desert his regiment.因为他嫌恶军队生活，所以他决心背弃自己所在的那个团。
• They reformed a division into a regiment.他们将一个师整编成为一个团。

5 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

6 genie   

n.妖怪，神怪

参考例句：

• Now the genie of his darkest and weakest side was speaking.他心灵中最阴暗最软弱的部分有一个精灵在说话。
• He had to turn to the Genie of the Ring for help.他不得不向戒指神求助。

7 fascination   

n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋

参考例句：

• He had a deep fascination with all forms of transport.他对所有的运输工具都很着迷。
• His letters have been a source of fascination to a wide audience.广大观众一直迷恋于他的来信。

8 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

9 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

10 authoritarian   

n./adj.专制(的)，专制主义者，独裁主义者

参考例句：

• Foreign diplomats suspect him of authoritarian tendencies.各国外交官怀疑他有着独裁主义倾向。
• The authoritarian policy wasn't proved to be a success.独裁主义的政策证明并不成功。

11 rental   

n.租赁，出租，出租业

参考例句：

• The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。
• We can organise car rental from Chicago O'Hare Airport.我们可以安排提供从芝加哥奥黑尔机场出发的租车服务。

12 transit   

n.经过，运输；vt.穿越，旋转；vi.越过

参考例句：

• His luggage was lost in transit.他的行李在运送中丢失。
• The canal can transit a total of 50 ships daily.这条运河每天能通过50条船。

13 automated   

a.自动化的

参考例句：

• The entire manufacturing process has been automated. 整个生产过程已自动化。
• Automated Highway System (AHS) is recently regarded as one subsystem of Intelligent Transport System (ITS). 近年来自动公路系统(Automated Highway System,AHS)，作为智能运输系统的子系统之一越来越受到重视。

14 illicit   

adj.非法的，禁止的，不正当的

参考例句：

• He had an illicit association with Jane.他和简曾有过不正当关系。
• Seizures of illicit drugs have increased by 30% this year.今年违禁药品的扣押增长了30%。

15 criteria   

n.标准

参考例句：

• The main criterion is value for money.主要的标准是钱要用得划算。
• There are strict criteria for inclusion in the competition.参赛的标准很严格。

16 systematically   

adv.有系统地

参考例句：

• This government has systematically run down public services since it took office.这一屆政府自上台以来系统地削减了公共服务。
• The rainforest is being systematically destroyed.雨林正被系统地毀灭。

17 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。

18 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

19 piracy   

n.海盗行为，剽窃，著作权侵害

参考例句：

• The government has already adopted effective measures against piracy.政府已采取有效措施惩治盗版行为。
• They made the place a notorious centre of piracy.他们把这地方变成了臭名昭著的海盗中心。

20 bureaucrat   

n. 官僚作风的人，官僚，官僚政治论者

参考例句：

• He was just another faceless bureaucrat.他只不过是一个典型呆板的官员。
• The economy is still controlled by bureaucrats.经济依然被官僚们所掌控。

21 justified   

a.正当的，有理的

参考例句：

• She felt fully justified in asking for her money back. 她认为有充分的理由要求退款。
• The prisoner has certainly justified his claims by his actions. 那个囚犯确实已用自己的行动表明他的要求是正当的。

22 dissent   

n./v.不同意，持异议

参考例句：

• It is too late now to make any dissent.现在提出异议太晚了。
• He felt her shoulders gave a wriggle of dissent.他感到她的肩膀因为不同意而动了一下。

23 dignified   

a.可敬的，高贵的

参考例句：

• Throughout his trial he maintained a dignified silence. 在整个审讯过程中，他始终沉默以保持尊严。
• He always strikes such a dignified pose before his girlfriend. 他总是在女友面前摆出这种庄严的姿态。