Xref: utzoo comp.misc:4865 talk.politics.soviet:979
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!bcsaic!rwojcik
From: rwojcik@bcsaic.UUCP (Rick Wojcik)
Newsgroups: comp.misc,talk.politics.soviet
Subject: Re: USSR International Computer Club
Message-ID: <9875@bcsaic.UUCP>
Date: 31 Jan 89 17:03:13 GMT
References: <8901290523.AA10179@decwrl.dec.com>
Reply-To: rwojcik@bcsaic.UUCP (Rick Wojcik)
Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle
Lines: 43

In article <8901290523.AA10179@decwrl.dec.com> simon@hpstek.dec.com (Curiosier and curiosier...) writes:
>Rick,  I am afraid you are missing the point.  There too few computers 
>in the country.  An IBM-PC compatible machine cost between 25K to 50K 
>Rubles, 10 to 20 times average yearly salary.  You can guess who can own 
>them.  If one got a disk, s/he still needs a computer to read it.  The 
>only way to distribute information there has been and is in print.  
>There are no modems, etc.  You got the idea.

I am not missing the point.  The price of computers will go down.  Soviet
schools are being supplied with computers and printers.  The Soviets have no
choice but to open their society to the evils of computer technology.
(Sometimes I think that it is the inevitability of computers that forced the
CPSU into accepting glasnost.)  I seem to recall that the Soviets had a little
run-in with VCRs once.  Who won that battle--the state or the people?  Your
assumption that everything will stay the way it is now is simply wrong.
Soviet society is changing, and the Party can't stop it.  We should encourage
the changes, not act like a bunch of silly babushkas.

>One shoud keep in mind that computer contacts with the USSR are not with 
>ordinary people like you and me.  These contacts are only with the 
>government approved organizations at best or with the governmental 
>agencies at worst.

I think that you are correct on this point.  I don't believe that the ICC is
anything but a government front.  So we don't get contact with the 'ordinary'
people.  How is this going to harm us?  Our side gathers intelligence too, you
know.  What can the Soviets learn that they can't through other means?  On the
other hand, we in the US have far fewer windows into their world.  Let's bring
them in and talk to them about ways of expanding glasnost and international
friendship.  It should be fun.  Maybe, eventually, we'll even get to meet
those 'ordinary' people that you want to contact.

>I am not advocating "computer silence", just suggesting to excercise 
>caution.

I think that you are less naive than most Americans about whom we are dealing
with.  But I still think that the risks are greater for the Soviets.  What is
it, specifically, that you fear will happen?


-- 
Rick Wojcik   csnet:  rwojcik@atc.boeing.com	   
              uucp:   uw-beaver!ssc-vax!bcsaic!rwojcik