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From: martillo@cpoint.UUCP (Joacim Martillo)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,comp.protocols.iso,comp.std.internat
Subject: ISDN & the Police State
Message-ID: <1943@cpoint.UUCP>
Date: 6 Jan 89 03:35:12 GMT
Reply-To: martillo@cpoint.UUCP (Joacim Martillo)
Organization: Clearpoint Research Corp., Hopkinton Mass.
Lines: 18

Last month in Hamburg, West Germany, Joseph Weizenbaum chaired a
three day meeting of the Computer Scientists' Forum for Peace and
Social Responsibility.  The meeting warned that "with ISDN a crucial
prerequisite for the Orwellian police state has been created."
Clearly, lots of computer scientists are losing it.  ISDN is a
ridiculous technology which does not provide anything which is not
already available through the current public phone and data networks.
The comparable ISDN service will probably be inferior but cost more.
On the other hand by giving the end user direct access to the digital
signaling stream, ISDN could well develop into a cracker's dream.
Somehow Weizenbaum believe that ISDN will increase efficiency that
will be used to wipe out jobs.  Now a correct viewpoint is to assume
that inefficient production methods threaten jobs because it puts the
company at risk.  If Weizenbaum is worried about the elimination of
jobs, he should worry more about the existent tax structure of the
Western industrial nations which encourage businesses to increase
debt rather than increase the intrinsic value of the firm which is
usually associated with job creation.