  Sunday, May 22, 2005  EIII. Neither/Nor  As The Transparent
Society is drawing to its close, David Brin retells the ancient
Greek story of a “farmer, Akademos, who did a favor for the sun
god.” Given the theme for which the tale will be meant to be
illustrative here, it is interesting to note, as Brin does not,
that the “favor” in question was the revelation to the divine
twins Castor and Pollux of the secret location where their
sister Helen had been hidden by Theseus. Akademos was something
of a whistle-blower. In any case, in return for this favor, “the
mortal was granted a garden wherein he could say anything he
wished, even [engage in] criticism of the mighty Olympians,
without retribution.” Brin goes on to muse, “I have often…
wonder[ed] how Akademos could ever really trust Apollo’s
promise. After all, the storied Greek deities were notoriously
mercurial, petty, and vengeful…”  It isn’t exactly surprising to
discover that Brin proposes as the resolution of his perplexity
here that “there were only two