Here's an email announcing Brin's talk. The quote I grabbed came from one of the interviews off the URL listed at the bottom.

Date: Fri, 7 Jun 1996 10:38:48 -0400
To: msgs@media.mit.edu, all-ai@ai.mit.edu
From: bl@media.mit.edu (betty lou mcclanahan)
Subject: david brin talk, monday, 6/10, 4:30pm,  bartos theatre, E15-001.

David Brin

SCIENCE AND THE NET IN THE 21ST CENTURY:
CAN THE TRADITION OF OPENNESS SURVIVE AN AGE OF SECRECY?

ABSTRACT:  The internet had its origins in science, a system based on
openness and accountability.  But today many groups are demanding
barriers against the free flow of informa, from censoring content to
promoting encryption and secret codes for all.  Privacy is touted as the
ultimate good.  Is this trend an automatic consequence of human nature?
Or will the open traditions of science ultimately thrive in the
"information age"?

HOST:  MARVIN MINSKY





Biographical Sketch


A well-known futurist, novelist, and popularizer of science, David Brin
is a
native Californian who was educated as an astronomer at Caltech, then worked
as an engineer for Hughes Aircraft Co. before achieving his doctorate at the
University of California.

Brin has lectured nationwide, in Asia, Europe, and North America, on topics
diverse as Ecology, Information Technology, Twenty-first Century
extrapolation, Spaceflight, and the Search for Extra-Terrestrial
Intelligent Life.
He serves on government and non-government advisory committees dealing
with the future "information superhighway."  His novel, EARTH, has become a
cult classic among those designing data pathways to lace every city the
globe.

David Brin's second novel, STARTIDE RISING, won the prestigious Hugo,
Nebula and Locus awards in 1983. A Hugo-winning short story, "The Crystal
Spheres," is featured in his collection, THE RIVER OF TIME.  A later novel,
THE POSTMAN, received the John W. Campbell Award and the Locus Award,
and was a Nebula and Hugo finalist.  THE POSTMAN also won commendation
from the American Library Association, and is under preparation for
filming by
Warner Brothers Studios.

HEART OF THE COMET, Brin's collaboration with noted novelist and
physicist Gregory Benford, won rave reviews as a spellbinding blend of
speculative science and dramatic fiction.  THE UPLIFT WAR, a 1987 novel,
was a New York Times best-seller and again recipient of that year's Hugo and
Locus Awards.  SUNDIVER, Brin's first novel is still in print with a cult
following for this "hi-tech murder mystery."  Another story and essay
collection
titled OTHERNESS explores speculations about the near future and some strange
but believable directions society may be heading.  It won the '95 Locus Award
for best single author collection.

David Brin's ecological thriller, EARTH, deals on a wide scope with both the
danger and hope lying in wait for this oasis world of ours.  Global warming,
pollution, and destruction of the ozone layer are topics which drew
considerable
attention from both scientists and the environmental movement, as well as the
most highly regarded depiction, to-date, of tomorrow's information
superhighway.  It appeared on several bestseller lists, has been
film-optioned.
Brin's latest novel, and another Hugo nominee, GLORY SEASON, tells the
adventures of Maia, a sixteen year old finding her way in a world where
sexual
politics have radically changed.  Called by one critic "a female Huckleberry
Finn,"  GLORY SEASON, is about the possible role of biology in destiny ...
and the strivings of a determined young person to overcome the
limitations of
both.

A new "Uplift" series began with BRIGHTNESS REEF (a Hugo nominee in
'96) and INFINITY'S SHORE, published by Bantam Doubleday Books.  Brin's
first non-fiction book is in preparation. The TRANSPARENT SOCIETY will
deal with contemporary concerns about privacy, accountability and secrecy
in the
world of the coming century.

David Brin's wife, Cheryl Brigham, is also a scientist.  They have a
young son
and daughter.  Brin speaks at public schools, sharing his passionate
enthusiasm
for the future. His novels have been translated into twenty languages and
non-
fiction articles have appeared in many magazines.  Claiming to be -- "in love
with this amazing, scary, fascinating century" -- David Brin makes
extensive use
of his scientific training in his writing, bringing to his novels an
intense passion
for the exploration of ideas, and the human spirit.

"I think it's an author's duty to inform, delight, inspire... but above
all to
entertain and be fair with the reader.  To share a little excitement for
some of the
danger, possibility, and wonder the future holds."



For more, check the World Wide Web:
http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~blandon/brin.html