[Corpora-List] Call for Papers: Mining User-GeneratedContent for Security - MINUCS 2009

[John F. Sowa]

I agree that a discussion and analysis of ethical and moral issues
is long overdue, but any analysis should begin with a historical
review of technology development and its unintended consequences.

In fact, if we look at the technology we're all using in this email
discussion, we might note that various government programs were
instrumental in developing it:

  1. The Internet evolved from ARPAnet, which was sponsored by the
     US Department of Defense and for many years was restricted to
     US government agencies and to businesses and universities that
     worked on government contracts.  Finally, under legislation
     sponsored by then Senator Al Gore, ARPAnet was opened up to
     the Internet, which became available to everybody -- including
     terrorists in every country in the world.

  2. The World Wide Web began at CERN, as a small project that was
     designed to facilitate collaboration and sharing of research
     reports in nuclear physics.  The Mozilla browser, which evolved
     into Netscape, also began at the University of Illinois with US
     gov't funding.

  3. Even the computers on which we're typing all our messages
     began with government funding during WW II in order to decode
     messages, compute ballistic trajectories, and design atomic
     weapons.  The funding for the most advanced technology has
     continued to come from the same kinds of government agencies.

This kind of technology, which was promoted by prosperous nations
for their own self interest, has had many unforeseen consequences.
Among them is the rise of the economies in China and India to
a level they could never have achieved if prosperous nations
had graciously given them unbelievable amounts of financial aid.

In fact, the laptop computer on which I am typing this note was
made in China.  Twenty years ago, it would have been classified
as a supercomputer, and large numbers of similar chips are used
in the latest supercomputers for newer versions of the same kinds
of applications as in WW II.

Such issues should be discussed and analyzed in appropriate forums.
But it's important to remember that all the technology we use and
develop can be applied for either good or evil.

John Sowa


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