[Tim's note: This is from John McCarthy, Professor of Computer Science (or AI, or similar) at Stanford. Prof. McCarthy was the originator of the term "artificial intelligence," invented the language LISP, and has been a creative thinker for many decades. I have always admired his no-nonsense approach to problems. I ran across this article in rec.arts.books.]

Path: sjcpnn01.usenetserver.com!e420r-sjo4.usenetserver.com!sjcppf01.usenetserver.com!usenetserver.com!newsfeeder.randori.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!nntp.stanford.edu!not-for-mail From: John McCarthy <jmc@Steam.Stanford.EDU> Newsgroups: rec.arts.books Subject: terrorism Date: 12 Sep 2001 09:56:32 -0700 Lines: 38 Message-ID: <x4hzo80cpq7.fsf@Steam.Stanford.EDU> NNTP-Posting-Host: steam.stanford.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.5/XEmacs 20.4 - "Emerald" Xref: e420r-sjo4.usenetserver.com rec.arts.books:98083

1. The media and the politicians have made this attack a "national emergency" as well as an act of war. It is an act of war but an emergency only in New York and Washington. If we regard ourselves as at war with the terrorists, we should minimize the disruption their actions cause rather than exaggerate it and increase it. Some universities in California and most of the public schools closed because of the alleged emergency. I'm pleased that Stanford University stayed open.

2. It has been the policy of the airlines and the FAA that flight crew should obey hijackers on the grounds that the policy saves lives. Up to now it has saved lives, but the number of lives lost today far outweighs the number saved in toto by the past policy. One of the cell phone calls recounted that the hijackers herded the crew and passengers to the back of the plane. Unless there is some guarantee that this kind of hijacking won't happen again, it will be safer to arm the crew to fight it out with hijackers, both for the safety of passengers and for the safety of possible targets. I believe this is the Israeli policy, and there has been exactly one hijacking of an Israeli plane, and that was the very first hijacking of all.

3. I suppose the crew of the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania had heard about the WTC crashes and decided to fight it out rather than let the hijackers crash the plane into a public building, but very likely they weren't adequately equipped and trained for this.

4. Feminist note: The flight crew is often just two men, sometimes including a woman. The cabin crew is much larger. If hijackers are to be fought, the cabin crew, mostly female, should be prepared to mob them and inspire passengers to help.

5. Putting an armed plain clothes security guard on each flight would also work. It just adds one person to the crew.

-- John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305 http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/ He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.