“Data Driven” by Danielle Cave
Intelligence agencies undoubtedly need to adapt if they want to operate successfully in an endless sea of data. They are facing new challenges – like COVID-19 – but, as per the warnings of speculative fiction, intelligence must be tempered by a nuanced understanding of the order being protected. This has been the subject of speculation since Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We and Jack London’s The Iron Heel laid the groundwork for George Orwell’s dystopian vision of the future in Nineteen Eighty-Four. While we are not, perhaps yet, sleepwalking into a world of total surveillance and repressive control, democratic nations are increasingly placing limits on freedom in the pursuit of order.
