Privacy is following chivalry to the grave. Here’s why that’s a good thing.

[Commentary] In many ways, the end of the age of privacy bears a resemblance to the passing of another great value -- chivalry. Society outgrew chivalry -- just like society is about to outgrow traditional notions of privacy. There’s no need to mourn the passing of the age of privacy. The reason why the digital era has resulted in an astonishing erosion of privacy is that open, networked connected societies tend to develop faster. The closed off ones don’t innovate and grow their economies (think North Korea). From that perspective, too much privacy is actually a net drag on innovation.

The strangeness of talking about protecting our privacy from cars or TVs is probably what it felt like when the friendly neighborhood knight stopped doting on women sometime during the Late Middle Ages. We live in an era when everyone gets hacked, any post on social media might end up somewhere else, the government will spy on us (no matter what it says), and all of our personal records could end up in the wrong hands. Privacy may not have died in 2014, but it sure seems like it’s on life-support. And, with the Internet of Things, we’re just getting started. A generation from now, the fact that we had any privacy will seem quaint, if not distinctly medieval.

[Dominic Basulto is a futurist and blogger based in New York City]