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From: eugene@pioneer.arpa (Eugene Miya N.)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Re: Why can't WE change society?
Message-ID: <1069@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM>
Date: Fri, 20-Nov-87 02:10:49 EST
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Posted: Fri Nov 20 02:10:49 1987
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Permit me to answer this if I may.

Joel Jennings writes:

> My apologies for posting this in what may be an inappropriate newsgroup, 
> but I have a silly question to ask. 

I don't think this is a silly question at all.

> We all talk about the impact of computers and networks on society and 
> the ills (or benefits) they may bring.  How come nobody ever attempts 
> to do something constructive?

Many things are done constructively, it's just that you are impatient
with people because they don't react as fast as interactive systems.
You just need some perspective (the study of history).

Keying on your word constructive: first, modern electronic computers were
first used to compute ballistic trajectories.  Agencies like DARPA had
the foresight to see other uses for machines and we have some very
visionary scientists like Vandy Bush, Ivan Sutherland, Alan Kay, etc.
we also have the personal computer from the first Apples to the Mac II
(and the famous but lesser known Alto which I had the pleasure of
using).  Lots of constructive things are done: CAD, simulation, etc.
But I begin to bore myself.  You know all these.

One more thing to note is that different people have different
perspectives of the world, like democrats and republicans, hindus/buddists
and christians/jews/moslems, vegies and meat eaters, smokers and non,
etc.

> Our readership has enough cumulative intelligence to reach the
> stars, and yet no one tries to use this capability to bring about the
> beneficial social changes we all read about in SF novels.

Well, we really don't know about reaching the stars.  I won't go into
that (maybe some of our children).  This kind of optimism was what I
found in Levy's book about Hackers and it is similar to some of the
ideas that the military had about using modern technology to SOLVE
Vietnam or to solve the problems of hunger or unemployment, etc.
I also enjoyed Levy's comment about Gosper and the Saturn V.

Part of the problem is that not every one in the world is connected, nor
knows how to us computers. It is worthwhile to learn and understand
computer "anxiety."  Some people are threatened in completely different
ways.  Another part of the problem is a newtork is not a database.
These (and your words) just fly off into the ether unless some one
collects them, refines them, saves them, and some one finds them years
from now (that's why past words are so precious and current words so
inflated).  We don't weigh them well.

P.S. be careful in distinguishing SF from reality.  I have met people
who thought the Laws of Robotics were real.

> Everyone TALKS about the impact on society, why doesn't anyone try to 
> MAKE an impact on society? 

We are making an impact on society.  We are turning it upside down.
Its a question of how much, of patience, or revolution.
You just have to plug away at the changes, you have to educate the
people around you, but you have to be prepared to give as well.
The early computer folks (and many IBMers) thought good interfaces
were inefficient.

Eugene Miya