Taboo and privacy
The other day someone tweeted that about taboo topics. It made me think: what is taboo? What conversations are inappropriate? Are they only inappropriate because of our culture?
For instance, clearly private sexual fantasies are not ideal dinner talk. But where should the line be drawn?
Salary is a strange one for me. Does knowing a colleague’s salary introduce odd office politics? What happens when someone decides to say their salary?
The whole idea reminds me of a book “The Light Of Other Days” by, hmm, Greg Bear maybe? I think it was co-authored. It was sci-fi anyway, and in that story a technology was invented that made personal privacy a thing of the past. No one had any privacy, ever, and it led to odd things like people having sex in public. Well why not? If everyone can see anyway then why not do it outside?
I wonder how the world would really cope if that sort of technology became possible.
The Light of Other Days was Stephen Baxter and Arthur C Clarke.
I think it only works when it happens to everyone simultaneously. The old “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours” problem.
If someone asks me what I earn, I’m happy to tell them. But broadcasting it just seems weird. In some countries, tax receipts aren’t private – so you can see what anyone earns.