From: Blanc Weber <blancw@MICROSOFT.com>
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 20:09:02 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: RE: Technology and loss of freedom
Message-ID: <88CE23A0B727D0118BB000805FD47524010C1FF2@RED-81-MSG.dns.microsoft.com>
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From:	ichudov@algebra.com

With the advent of technology, the balance of perceived social needs and
government capabilities shifted radically, and it shifted away from the
great freedoms of the past. The public perception of freedom now is that
freedom is inherently dangerous and is a threat to the public itself.
............................................................


The more advanced the technological creations become, the more potential
there is for disaster - in larger measure and in greater speed - and
therefore the greater need there is for preparation to deal with the new
toys and the consequences when things go wrong.   This needed
preparation includes the time required for developing concepts regarding
our human nature and our place in the artificial "man-made" world, about
"who is in control around here" - us or the machines - and what purposes
- or whose purposes - the machines serve.

But then there's always a confusion and many battles over who will serve
whose purposes, not only in regard of machines, but of governments and
societies.

Technology doesn't communicate automatically any particular message.
Anyone can interpret its existence in any way it pleases them to
interpret it.    If those who use these toys and tools every day do not
stop to identify what they are doing, and why, and who is making the
decisions in their life; if they don't make conscious choices about
their activities and the means they use to accomplish these, it is not
the technology which is to blame for the humans' default on thinking.   

    ..
Blanc