From what you have said, it sounds like Denning, et. al's objections are of a similar ilk; they are afraid of how this might completely change society. I agree; it probably will. However, while there may have been some societal upheavals that can be traced back to the introduction of
From: rcain@netcom.com (Robert Cain) Date: Tue, 1 Mar 1994 20:10:15 -0800 (PST) What has not been discussed here very much and what I felt going into the conversations with these people is that they *can't* tell us what they are afraid of. It is not a matter of won't. The conversations bore this out. We have been concentrating on in our discussion here on how much they fear the loss of a power they have gotten used to and abused to where we find it offensive. That is not nearly so much what they fear. It is the *unknown*. It is pretty hard to make public statements like that. Yes, it is pretty hard, because it makes it seem as if they have small minds. There have been people who have likened the coming of computers and networking to the invention of the Gutenburg printing press --- that is, it is a critical, enabling technology that will have extremely serious impacts on our society as we know it. I can imagine that back then, the Catholic church must have been deeply opposed to letting the "hoi polloi" access to books, and access to learning. Think of how it would disrupt the social order!!! the printing press, in the end I think we can all agree that the printing press was a good thing. The important point that you make is that the cat really *is* out of the bag; I am just concerned that the government, in a futile attempt to try to stuff the cat back in, does perhaps fatal damage to all of our civil rights in its desperation. Look at how civil forfeiture has been used to completely strip someone of his properties, without any due process. Look at the RICO act, and the truely scary things that you can do with it; it was originally applied against the Big Bad Mob, but it's turning out to have much broader applications. So if the cat really is out of the bag, then the government should give up on this ill-conceived Clipper abortion as soon as possible. The fact that the Clipper propoents may actually be recognizing the hopelessness of their task this is a sign of hopefulness or a sign of great danger; the question is whether they will act like rational human beings, or a cornered animal. - Ted