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From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet,comp.misc
Subject: Re: USSR International Computer Club
Message-ID: <887@optilink.UUCP>
Date: 31 Jan 89 18:37:22 GMT
References: <8901241514.AA04102@decwrl.dec.com. <9778@bcsaic.UUCP.
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA
Lines: 42

In article <9778@bcsaic.UUCP., rwojcik@bcsaic.UUCP (Rick Wojcik) writes:
. In article <8901241514.AA04102@decwrl.dec.com. simon@hpstek.dec.com (Curiosier and curiosier...) writes:
. .It may sound all too well, but are you aware that the ordinary Soviet 
. .citizens may not own computer printers.  It is illegal and punishable by 
. .law to a few years in prison.  Do you still want to promote computer 
. .contacts with the Soviet Union?
. 
. Are you aware that computer disks have some advantages over printed matter?
. They store more information per pound, they can be easily concealed, and they
. can be easily transported.  People in samizdat used to have to copy

And the contents can be encrypted, allowing "subversive" materials to
be circulated, and the key passed on mouth-to-mouth, making it more
difficult to determine if the contents are pornographic or something
REALLY subversive, like free market economics.

. manuscripts laboriously on typewriters.  Computers can certainly be misused by
. totalitarian regimes.  In the end, however, they may signal the death knell of
. totalitarianism, because they make it virtually impossible to control the flow
. of information.  
. 
. I strongly support computer contacts with the Soviet Union.  I don't believe
. that it will appreciably increase security risks.  (The KGB seems to have done
. a pretty good job of penetrating our security already.)  I don't fear exposure
. of Americans to Soviet propaganda.  Our society accepts (or ought to accept)

Not when we have American news media already.

. the view that public exposure is the best way of sorting out ideas.  If
. anything, the Soviets have more to fear from this contact than we do.  After
. all, our side has the more compelling arguments.  Right?
. 
. Rick Wojcik   csnet:  rwojcik@atc.boeing.com	   

Personal computing and rock-and-roll are going to be the most important
factors in the death of Marxism.


-- 
Clayton E. Cramer
{pyramid,pixar,tekbspa}!optilink!cramer
Disclaimer?  You must be kidding!  No company would hold opinions like mine!