Musings of a Compulsive Thinker

The future is now?

Reading this article in a recent issue of Technology Review, I had to stop and think that (a) some people have really been weirdly accurate in their visions of the future, and (b) we might be able to live under Their umbrella in blissful denial and/or ignorance, but Big Brother is here and They might be more powerful than we like to think. (And that, right there, is a frightening and thorny dissertation for some other time.)

Quoting MIT professor Robert Fano, 1970:
"Computers provide access to knowledge, and knowledge is power... Big Brother may well take the form of a computerized and centralized information system which has become essential to the operation of society. Thus, the societal exploitation of computers... may continue on the automation of existing functions in human organizations, with a concomitant centralization of information and control... [which] leads to the evolution of organizations into superhuman entities with their own goals, largely insensitive to human values."

Of course, the flip side of this argument is, as Fano explained, that "societal exploitation of computers" could take the opposite direction, toward "turning the power of computers to the service of the individual." His main point was a warning: "Unless computers are made truly accessible to the population at large, there will develop a dangerous power gap between those who have access to computers and those who have not, and particularly between organizations -- whether public or private -- and the private citizen."

I think it's important to recognize the current reality of both of Fano's visions for the future. With that in mind, it's also important to note that by the very nature of the Internet, and the resultant collaborative sharing (or not) of information -- privacy rights, for example, and how private your on-line information actually is -- our situation is still growing and changing as society adapts new technology to its own ends in various ways.

(Full article: "Community Access," by Matt Mahoney >>)

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Labels: everyday, ponderings, science

posted by the alygator @ 2:04 PM