The future has nothing to do with technology, technology is a neutral tool, it's what the people choose to do with that tool that will make a difference, and that's entirely up to us. Freedom is very rarely taken by force, it's given away in gradual increments by a people too lazy or apathetic to defend it. Ben Franklin once observed that anyone who would surrender essential Liberties to secure a little temporary security deserves neither Liberty nor security. What we have been seeing since 9/11 is the people in the U.S. giving up one liberty after another in the name of keeping themselves safer, just as Franklin warned against. The failing economy, rising crime rate, and repeated diplomatic failures overseas all prove that while we have certainly given up a lot of our rights, we haven't gotten any safer and never will by the methods we are using.