Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Networks, who pays
Message-ID: <2376@looking.UUCP>
Date: 21 Nov 88 22:45:30 GMT
References: <706.2387C50F@isishq.FIDONET.ORG>
Reply-To: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Lines: 26

How to guard against it?  Decentralization of political power.
Individual freedom.  These are just political ideals today, but with
networks growing as they are, they will become necessary.

The networks must be owned and controled by people.  Small networks
would be best.  It will be up to the customers, but with hope, the
customers, even big business, will not allow all their computer
networking to be in the hands of one entity.

Up to now we have allowed the government to control the phone company
because even taking over the phone company and the post office would not
be enough for a real police state.

In a free society, you really have to work hard to set up a police state.
I hate to say this, as I'm not a big gun fan, but it's harder still
in an armed society.  That's the reason the framers of the US constitution
put in that controversial 2nd amendement.

We need a modern 2nd amendment, for when computers get more powerful
than guns:

	"As free communication is the basis of a free society, the
	right of the citizens to own and control computers and
	communications networks shall not be abridged."
-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd.  --  Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473