Mack: Real World Inspiration For Latest Novel
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Events in today’s world were the inspiration for author David Mack‘s latest Trek novel: Star Trek: Section 31: Control.
The novel, released this week, is about Doctor Julian Bashir’s attempt to take down the illegal, immoral and downright dangerous Section 31.
Mack explained how the events of today led to the story. “A big part of my inspiration for Control has been my growing frustration with, and apprehension of, the burgeoning U.S. surveillance state,” he said.
“Between the marked increase in CBP [US Customs and Border Protection] harassment of international travelers (including U.S. citizens), the increasingly lax oversight of the FISA Court [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court], the spread of the NSA’s Echelon data dragnet, and, just today, the passing of a law by Congress to strip the American people of legal privacy protections online, all in the name of commerce and power, we live in terrifying times.
“Extrapolate from our present circumstances and ask, ‘What would happen if we built a system to monitor all this and analyze it with predictive algorithms for the sake of law enforcement and national security? And what if that system slipped its subtle bonds of command and control and started doing things its own way? What would we do then?'”
Star Trek: Section 31: Control can be ordered here.
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