The world is a confusing and ambiguous mix of good and evil, with an endless number of perceptions and angles, where no good deed goes unpunished.
The dark web, which we hear referred to ... um ... darkly, but which most of us know just a little, bears this out.
Horizon, the BBC's flagship science documentary series, looks into the issue on The Truth about the Dark Web, on BBC Knowledge tomorrow at 8.30pm.
Including interviews on the subject with the likes of Julian Assange, Dark Web patiently and chronologically tracks the development of an encrypted web from a high-minded response to the fear of digital mass surveillance, to a project at the United States Naval Research Laboratory to develop anonymous communication, to a non-profit organisation's work to make it a worldwide tool for dissidents and journalists in oppressive regimes, and, finally, a free-for-all drug and crime market online.
The Truth about the Dark Web notes 25 years after the worldwide web was created, we are now dealing with serious concerns about one by-product: surveillance.
From early on in the web's development, there have been concerns governments and corporations could monitor our every move.
The show, which begins a series of three documentaries (The Truth about the Moon and The Truth about Allergies feature in the following two weeks) looks at the work of Dr David Chaum, who as early as the 1970s raised concerns about digital surveillance, and invented cryptographic protocols for computers.
His work was picked up by the Naval Research Laboratory, which developed the TOR, or ''onion routing'' system, to protect US intelligence communications online.
In 2004, the Naval Research Laboratory released the TOR code under a free licence, and non-profit digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) began funding its development.
Interviews with key players in these developments reveal while TOR was celebrated as a vital tool in the Arab Spring, and for allowing anonymous communication in countries such as China and Iran, its use for organisations such as WikiLeaks caused a remarkable backlash in its country of birth.
And, of course, it was not long before the darker side of human nature found the anonymity provided could be put to dark use.
That led to the development of websites such as Silk Road, an online black market described on the show as ''a buffet dinner for narcotics'' and a place where almost anything can be bought, from guns and drugs to credit card details.
The Truth about the Dark Web offers a fascinating review of technology used by both good and bad.
- Charles Loughrey
