Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!isishq!doug
From: doug@isishq.FIDONET.ORG (Doug Thompson)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Networks, who pays
Message-ID: <706.2387C50F@isishq.FIDONET.ORG>
Date: 19 Nov 88 23:16:55 GMT
Organization: International Student Information Service -- Headquarters
Lines: 56


 BT>From: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) 
 
 BT>Computer networks are going to become more than just the roads and phones 
 BT>and TVs of the future.   They will be the very foundation of society 
 BT>and commerce. 
 
Well one could say that roads and telephones are the very foundation of 
society and commerce. Try to imagine either without roads and telephones 
:-) 
 
 BT> 
 BT>The most fundamental realization we can make today is that no single 
 BT>entity can be allowed to control the networks.  Particularly the government. 
 BT> 
 BT>If the government controls the networks, we will be *literally one 
 BT>keystroke away from a police state.   
 
That's an important point. A concern I have is that we are getting more 
and more into a world where power (of all kinds) is concentrated. 
Watching big business and big government conspire in Canada recently to 
drench the populace with mass media advertising saying nothing more 
profound than "the leader of the opposition is lying" makes one wonder 
if there is more than "one entity" in society? 
 
Among what power groups would you suggest control be distributed? I'd 
suggest that control be distributed democratically among all the people. 
That probably equates with government control.  
 
Government control is not so bad as long as the people can control the 
government. If the people cannot control the government then you have a 
police state no matter what the technology. Hitler and Stalin did not 
need computer networks to establish police-states. 
 
Computer communication networks strike me as no more easy to monopilize 
than any other means of communication. What strikes me as scary is the 
possibility of the computerization of all financial transactions. That 
would genuinely enable the "network masters" to monitor and control any 
financial relationship. 
 
 BT>Not that the government may want 
 BT>that.  But if all you have to do is load your programs into the network 
 BT>to control society, someday it will happen. 
 
I'm inlcined to agree, with qualifications. The question is, how can 
this kind of danger be realistically guarded against? 
 
=Doug 
 
  


--  
 Doug Thompson - via FidoNet node 1:221/162
     UUCP: ...!watmath!isishq!doug
 Internet: doug@isishq.FIDONET.ORG