The term “mutual transparency” refers to a state in which
- Every person has the right to gather information about other people, phenomena, events, and knowledge, rather than it being the privilege of some ruling elite.
- Moreover, the greater the authority of a person, the more transparent their behavior is to others, rather than the other way around.
- The law is implemented in such a way that everyone can know who has shown interest in information about them.
- A person’s activity in searching for and using information is also accessible to those who wish to learn more about that individual.
- You can’t falsify the history of records. Blockchain and distributed storage come to the rescue.
Such a system allows
a) There exists a morality of “contractual privacy,” where it would simply be inappropriate to meddle in a neighbor’s affairs without their permission and without reason — the neighbor can always directly ask you, “What did you actually need? Just ask, and I’ll tell you.”
b) make producers of products, important public figures, as transparent as possible, so that information about them can be accessed by completely unrelated individuals who are simply trying to determine whether to trust a person or a company.
b) establish an asymmetry of transparency that has an opposite direction compared to the existing one. Right now, the more influence you have over others, the more information you possess compared to those being influenced. With mutual transparency, it will be the other way around. The higher you stand, the more visible you are to those around you. This will lead to a “flattening” of the world.
It seems that mutual transparency completely destroys privacy. At the same time, it is precisely this mutual transparency that allows people to identify privacy violators and hold them accountable. More details. ).
Of course, mutual transparency should not be unconditional. People are, after all, susceptible to passion and vices, and it can be quite unpleasant when, for example, an unreciprocated lover or a jealous partner pursues their beloved without violating the boundaries of customs or legal norms. Thus, there will be a demand, as well as the enforcement of bans on tracking personal information.
If we’re touching on the topic of sexuality, it would be interesting to explore the process of getting to know someone of the opposite sex in a context of mutual transparency. For instance, if a girl is interested in a guy, will she investigate his “profile,” thereby showing her interest (since the guy will know who is interested in him), or will she feel shy about doing so? Will she want to reach out to intermediaries, and will those intermediaries be willing to help her in her exploration, considering that the question of the motives behind the investigation will still remain open?