The Metadata of Dorian Gray

Intrusive surveillance of the entire population was easier back in the days when magnetic tapes and punched Baudot-code ribbons were the media of mass data-storage, and could be presented as endearing anthropomorphic mascots to reconcile everyone to being monitored and recorded. No doubt you remember the marketing campaigns with the cartoons and the jingles and all (That click on the phone It's your digital clone!).


Coming up with an anthropomorphic mascot for petabyte disk drives is a lot harder. Or so we hear from friends.