The term ambient findability describes a world at the crossroads of ubiquitous computing and the internet, in which we can find anyone or anything from anywhere at any time. It's not necessarily a goal, and we'll never achieve perfect findability, but we're surely headed in the right direction.

This is a brilliant article from a technological vision standpoint and an absolutely stupid one from a political perspective. Its worth reading for both reasons.

On the later point this is a reality which is coming and an attitude that will need to be stared down. A grand tyranny of the majority is called for here, in which one lives in an intolerant social sphere filled with busy bodies who shun and judge eachother using the latest high tech gadgets. Those who whine about personal privacy are called luddites and compared to irrational fundamentalists!

This is nuts. I'd much rather have the FBI breathing down my neck. They have limits, checks, and balances. My neighbors do not. Putting every private life under the microscope usually reserved for Presidential Candidates and Supreme Court nominees will result in a society that is far too conformist to be innovative or free.

You can accomplish most ubicomp applications while protecting privacy.

O'Reilly Network: UFOs (Ubiquitous Findable Objects)