Increasingly, many products are being designed with features that intentionally restrict the way the user can behave, or enforce certain modes of behaviour. The same intentions are also evident in the design of many systems and environments.

This is a cool idea for a blog.

A good example post is here. This ought to be in Rattle's bookmark list for the next time someone is offended by his suggestions that the UK can be viewed as a model for just how bad surveillance can get in a "free" society.

We have reached that stage now where we have gone almost as far as it is possible to go in establishing the infrastructures of control and surveillance within an open and free environment... People are resigned to their fate. They’ve bought the Government’s arguments for the public good. There is a generational failure of memory about individual rights. Whenever Government says that some intrusion is necessary in the public interest, an entire generation has no clue how to respond, not even intuitively.

The article quoted here provides some clear examples of abuse of anti-terrorism powers in the UK and a chilling quote from Tony Blair about rebalancing the priorities of criminal trials in favor of prosecutors. If an American politician ever utters such a thing I'll be first in line to volunteer on behalf of his or her opponent. The British people need another bill of rights.

Architectures of Control in Design