I Think There Are Rules

I have not read about dataism, beyond the comments from a book about possible trends in the future of humans, but the first martyr to the religion hanged himself after being arrested for stealing files from a database of scientific research. His argument was that data must be available. I have some problems with that.

I don't say where I work in this journal. I don't want to talk about the place here, but it would not be conducive to job security to openly criticize any place I were working. And, as I am an educator, it would be in violation of federal law to reveal the identities of students at the place I work. Does that create a fundamental conflict between dataism and humanist beliefs about privacy?

Truthfully, I don't know that our concepts of privacy are humanist. Americans believe in privacy rights. There are arguments over them, of course, but privacy rights are part of the basis for some of the rights listed in the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution. Privacy was cited as a justification for legalizing abortion. A woman has the right to her own private views about her pregnancy, and the right to control her own body, and accept or reject the risks of pregnancy or elective abortion. We also claim a right to be free from illegal search and seizure, and so forth. There are laws and regulations regarding the privacy rights of not just students, but patients in healthcare settings, and other places. Attorney-client privilege. Even executive privilege. Offices of the executive branch have the right to private discussions, or so some claim.

That does not square with the fundamental idea of dataism, that information should flow freely.

Can I, in good conscience, keep data from the data gods, or the puny little algorithms that aspire to become data gods? I have no problem with that. I don't think I could make a claim that my exercise of dataism as a religion would justify blatant violation of the privacy rights of patients or students, or other information I gained in confidence.

Perhaps I should investigate, and learn whether such ideas about privacy originate in humanism. After all, the Great Gods of the Great Religions of the World are all-seeing, all-knowing, and omnipresent, so there is no privacy from them. Makes me wonder what the point of clothing really is in those systems. Maybe I'll learn something if I look deeper into that question.