From: "Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 96 15:01:54 PST
To: Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>
Subject: Re: Net Control is Thought Control
In-Reply-To: <2.2.32.19960110175223.006a6bcc@panix.com>
Message-ID: <199601102251.OAA09843@netcom7.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



DCF makes some excellent points about the difficulty of *overt*
thought control in a information society.

however I would like to suggest that in our own democratic culture, *overt*
thought control is not really that important and is not necessarily
the major means of thought control.

the most insidious, and effective, form of thought control is that
which manipulates subject's thinking without their being aware of it.

there are a variety of ways to accomplish this, many of them outlined
in a book called "Coercive Persuasion" loaned to me be an acquaintance.

one way is to try to infiltrate groups with particular individuals who
are loyal to the "thought control" agenda, who then attempt to gain
the trust of members, but then also try to subtly manipulate their thinking.

the problem that "covert thought control" becomes more possible with
an information age that does not handle identity in any "permanent" or
"enduring" way. agent provocateurs etc. may be more difficult to identify
and easier to create and maintain.   in fact a single "government
thought control agent" might be able to create and maintain dozens of
convincing identities, all of them working to subtly manipulate the
population's thinking without detection. in the real world, once a "person"
is discredited, all that they do is tainted, but when a "tentacle" is
"tainted" in cyberspace, the "operator" need only create a new "tentacle"--
an operation that is becoming increasingly cheap.

so in other words I would say that cyberspace raises some problems while
solving others, and that its full implications are not yet apparent. I suspect
we are simply going to run into new, more sophisticated forms of thought 
control, not the total dissolution of its capability, in cyberspace. old
forms of trying to kill thoughts based on the physical medium, such as bashing
printing presses, will dissolve, but other forms of "meme damage" such
as "flooding attacks" etc. may arise instead.