Little Brother

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow.

Supposedly this book is for young adults, but it should be required reading for everyone. Probably we should study it the way we studied 1984 in high school. Doctorow, who is already well known in the geek world, has written a very important book about freedom and surveillance.

In the not too distant future (just try reading that without signing the MST3K theme song! try!) San Francisco is hit with the worst terrorist attack the US has ever seen, and a group of 4 high school students are in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Department of Homeland security interrogates them for days and then sets them free, but they return to a police state where the Bill of Rights has basically been suspended. The book shows how easily this could happen. Luckily the main character, Marcus, is wise beyond his years about computers and security and he fights the power.

Now admittedly I got lost when it came to a lot of the math and cryptography, but I don't think you need to be some sort of leet haxxor to understand that our freedoms are being taken away one by one.

Go! Read it now! And then go check out the Electronic Frontier Foundation.