Edward Snowden and Gen Y: a sign of leaks to come?
Assange's seldom mentioned manifesto[1] talks about the goal of making secrecy impossible by making the secret systems either completely disconnected from the real world, or so liable to leaking that they are no longer secret.It's difficult imagining that goal being completely achieved, but it is interesting how closely the Snowden story matched Assange's thoughts.Note that Assange's writing is pretty.. umm.. dense. It is worth reading the commentary at [2] at the same time.This analysis is excellent:[Assange] decides, instead, that the most effective way to attack this kind of organization would be to make “leaks” a fundamental part of the conspiracy’s  information environment.... the idea is that increasing the porousness of the conspiracy’s information system will impede its functioning, that the conspiracy will turn against itself in self-defense, clamping down on its own information flows in ways that will then impede its own cognitive function. You destroy the conspiracy, in other words, by making it so paranoid of itself that it can no longer conspire[1] http://cryptome.org/0002/ja-conspiracies.pdf[2] http://zunguzungu.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/julian-assange-an...