HACKER Q&A
📣 mrccc

What is the name of the parable about privacy?


I am trying to find a parable/short story that I've seen posted in HN comments (googling didn't yield any results). It is about a fictional world where, at some point, somebody invents "color" to paint their transparent houses and the government is passing policy to add surveillance. It shows how empty certain arguments from politicians are to pass laws to reduce privacy.

Can anybody help? (I will bookmark the story directly)


  👤 perihelions Accepted Answer ✓
I think I've found it. The original is a usenet post by "Perry E. Metzger" from 1993,

https://cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1993/04/msg00559.html

https://www.clock.org/~fair/opinion/parable.html

I've found three comment threads on HN referencing it (through either of those two URL's),

https://hn.algolia.com/?query=ruritania%20police&type=commen...

Cheers!