The Circle

logo,” he said, and pointed to a wallscreen, where, on his cue, the logo
     appeared. “See how that ‘c’ in the middle is open? For years it’s bothered me, and
     it’s become symbolic of what’s left to do here, which is to close it.” The ‘c’ on
     screen closed and became a perfect circle. “See that?” he said. “A circle is the strongest
     shape in the universe. Nothing can beat it, nothing can improve upon it, nothing can
     be more perfect. And that’s what we want to be: perfect. So any information that eludes
     us, anything that’s not accessible, prevents us from being perfect. You see?”
    “I do,” Mae said, though she wasn’t sure she did.
    “This is in line with our goals for how the Circle can help us, individually, feel
     more complete, and feel that others’ impressions of us are complete—are based on complete
     information. And to prevent us from feeling, as you did, that some distorted view
     of ourselves is presented to the world. It’s like a broken mirror. If we look into
     a broken mirror, a mirror that’s cracked or missing parts, what do we get?”
    Now it made sense to Mae. Any assessment, judgment, or picture utilizing incomplete
     information would always be wrong. “We get a distorted and broken reflection,” she
     said.
    “Right,” Bailey said. “And if the mirror is whole?”
    “We see everything.”
    “A mirror is truthful, correct?”
    “Of course. It’s a mirror. It’s reality.”
    “But a mirror can only be truthful when it’s complete. And I think for you, the problem
     with Gus’s LuvLuv presentation was that it wasn’t complete.”
    “Okay.”
    “Okay?”
    “Well, that’s true,” she said. She wasn’t sure why she opened her mouth, but the words
     tumbled out before she could restrain them. “But I still think there are things, even
     if just a few, that we want to keep to ourselves. I mean, everyone does things alone,
     or in the bedroom, that they’re ashamed of.”
    “But why should they be ashamed?”
    “Maybe not always ashamed. But things they don’t want to share. That maybe they don’t
     think people will understand. Or will change the perception of them.”
    “Okay, with that kind of thing, one of two things will eventually happen. First, we’ll
     realize that whatever behavior we’re talking about is so widespread and harmless that
     it needn’t be secret. If we demystify it, if we admit that it’s something we all do,
     then it loses its power to shock. We move toward honesty, and we move away from shame.
     Or second, and even better, if we all, as a society, decide that this is behavior
     we’d rather not engage in, the fact that everyone knows, or has the power to know
     who’s doing it, this would prevent the behavior from being engaged in. This is just
     as you said—you wouldn’t have stolen if you knew you were being watched.”
    “Right.”
    “Would the guy down the hall view porn at work if he knew he was being watched?”
    “No. I guess not.”
    “So, problem solved, right?”
    “Right. I guess.”
    “Mae, have you ever had a secret that festered within you, and once that secret was
     out, you felt better?”
    “Sure.”
    “Me too. That’s the nature of secrets. They’re cancerous when kept within us, but
     harmless when they’re out in the world.”
    “So you’re saying there should be no secrets.”
    “I have thought on this for years, and I have yet to conjure a scenario where a secret
     does more good than harm. Secrets are the enablers of antisocial, immoral and destructive
     behavior. Do you see how this is?”
    “I think so. But—”
    “You know what my spouse said to me years ago when we got married? She said that whenever
     we were apart, for instance when I might go on a business trip, I should behave as
     if there were a camera on me. As if she were watching. Way back when, she was saying
     this in a purely conceptual way, and she was half-kidding, but the mental picture
     helped me. If I found myself alone in a room with a woman colleague, I would wonder,
What would Karen think of this if she were watching from a closed-circuit camera?
This would gently guide my behavior, and it would prevent me from even approaching
     behavior she wouldn’t like, and of which I wouldn’t be proud. It kept me honest. You
     see what I mean?”
    “I do,” Mae said.
    “I mean, the trackability of self-driving cars is solving a lot of this, of course.
     Spouses increasingly know where