http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/21025.html
http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/16411.html
Alexa Champion wrote:
>
> Where did you get this article? I might cite it.
> Alexa Champion
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gregory Alan Bolcer <gbolcer@ics.uci.edu>
> To: fork@xent.com <fork@xent.com>
> Date: Friday, July 30, 1999 9:15 PM
> Subject: Stay Away
>
> >These things would be perfect at cocktail parties:
> >"Stay away, this idiot's doesn't know WTF he's talking
> > about and has been violent when drunk the past 88% of the time."
> >
> >Greg
> >
> >
> >
> >Orwell Checks In on the Valley
> > by Ayla Jean Yackley
> >
> > 5:05 p.m. 20.Nov.98.PST
> > SAN JOSE, California -- Pill boxes beep when it's
> > time to take your medicine. Systems play your
> > favorite music when you enter a room. A sensor on
> > your clothing detects the particles in your
> > co-worker's cough. "Stay away," it warns, "he has
> > the flu."
> >
> > Gregory Benford, a physics professor at the
> > University of California at Irvine, spun these visions
> > of the future at the Cato Institute's three-day
> > Conference on Technology & Society, held here
> > Friday.
> >
> > If microprocessors decrease in cost to just a few
> > pennies by 2010, Benford predicted they will
> > automate the most mundane of daily activities.
> >
> > Benford, who is also an author, was joined by
> > futurist writers David Brin, author of Startide Rising
> > and Vernon Vinge, author of A Fire upon the Deep,
> > for a morning discussion of technology's role in
> > creating "fictional futures."
> >
> > Vinge warned that these inexpensive chips may
> > create a guise for government.
> >
> > "While government will appear less invasive," it
> > may in fact own a piece of every processor, he said.
> > Government may conduct activities like tax
> > collection over personal computers, leaving citizens
> > with a smaller space for dissension.
> >
> > Yet Vinge credited the advent of personal computers
> > in allaying the human fear of technology. Only
> > governments could own the gargantuan,
> > multimillion-dollar machines of the 1950s and 1960s,
> > which caused citizens to distrust what they could
> > not control.
> >
> > "The PC destroyed the notion of the computer
> > thwarting freedom, leading to a 1984," he said, and
> > personal ownership has created the sense that
> > technology enhances freedom.
> >
> > But technology can still lead to an Orwellian
> > scenario, said Brin, who laid out a conspiratorial
> > vision straight out of The X-Files.
> >
> > Brin said a "surveillance society" could manifest out
> > of seemingly benign personal computers. As society
> > becomes more networked, he said, human behavior
> > may be tracked with less obvious methods than,
> > say, video surveillance. Instead, movements may be
> > documented by learning which Web sites are visited
> > or how much time is spent online.
> >
> > Benford said our comfortable relationship with
> > personal computers may lead to a culture of
> > complacency, as people opt for convenience over
> > freedom. He described a "sissy society" that lives in
> > "cocoons."
> >
> > "We'll all sit in our 'friendly homes' ... and we
> won't
> > carry out the big projects," he said.
> >
> > But Brin disagreed. "We'll find new challenges,
> > worries, and hobbies. We'll jump out of planes or go
> > nuts in good ways."
> >
> > "Yes, but these are more personal and less
> > meaningful activities than human pursuits of the
> > past," Benford countered.
> >
> > The debate among the futurists showed the lack of
> > consensus on technology's unfolding purposes and
> > pitfalls. The Cato Institute's parley continues
> > through Saturday.
> >