Tim wrote:
On Sunday, May 26, 2002, at 10:07 AM, John Young wrote:
Thomas Friedman in the New York Times today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/26/opinion/26FRIE.html
Webbed, Wired and Worried, May 26, 2002 ....
pose these questions to techies. I found at least some of their libertarian, technology-will-solve-everything cockiness was gone. I found a much keener awareness that the unique web of technologies Silicon Valley was building before 9/11 -- from the Internet to powerful encryption software -- can be incredible force multipliers for individuals and small groups to do both good and evil.
Well, "duh." As an analyst of high tech, Friedman is a pretty good analyst of the Arab-Israeli conflict. His conclusions about the views of Silicon Valley are facile and simplistic.
I didn't really interpret Friedman's article to indicate that he himself has so much come to see technology in a different light following 9/11, but rather that he noticed that many in the Valley have begun to see technology in a different light, being now more receptive and susceptible to governmental suggestions to consider including the Big Brother Inside. In as far as Friedman's post is reporting on a change in the mindset of the technology providers, his article might be represent more of a statement of fact than an opinion. Just a thought, --Lucky