Legion

In Roger Zelazny's "My Name is Legion," a system is set up for keeping track of everyone and everything. It's all for a good cause: For peace, for public safety, for a better economy. Every person's info will be in the "database," which the title character is helping to put together. It is described - seriously, no irony, no Big Brother overtones - as being a worthwhile endeavor,  until one of the higher-ups has doubts, and gives the title character the chance to opt out.  Which he does, taking advantage of his knowledge to become a private eye, solving difficult high-tech problems.

(His name actually isn't given anywhere: It's an allusion to his ability to have thousands of names, rather than a single one like everyone else, since he exists outside of the system.)

The interesting thing is how natural the concept of setting the system up appears. While this would be a great premise for a television show, it would be a tough sell in the modern era. "The government is setting this up and, uh, nobody tries to take it down? Everyone thinks it's a great idea? Is it a period piece?"

Which of course it is. The premises of the individual stories are similarly set in the expectation of great new realms to explore: Dolphins as highly intelligent, volcanos being coaxed from the sea floor (where domed cities already exist), and an artificially intelligent planetary explorer returning to earth. All describing a time when great things could happen.

As such, it's surprising that it was published in 1976. Seems such an First Turning way of thinking. Although, of course, all these great things have seeds of destruction within them, so it fits pretty well after all.