Is there any scope in our developed economy for inventors to maintain influence over who it is that gains from their creativity? Or is that hope completely lost?
Not really, but inventors can educate the public on the risks their inventions create.
The Use of Computers to Support Oppression
11–20 of 30 posts
Re: The Use of Computers to Support Oppression
#12I hate how you americans kicked South Africa for the same things they stopped to do, like, just fifteen years earlier. That's like punching other people instead of saying "sorry, I did bad things". Bonus thing, you ruin a country in process.
That would be our American leaders, not us. Our democracy functions by having irrelevant arguments about gays or drilling in Alaska every 4 years and then the leaders do whatever they want while nobody pays attention.
Re: The Use of Computers to Support Oppression
#13I hate how you americans kicked South Africa for the same things they stopped to do, like, just fifteen years earlier. That's like punching other people instead of saying "sorry, I did bad things". Bonus thing, you ruin a country in process.
That would be our American leaders, not us. Our democracy functions by having irrelevant arguments about gays or drilling in Alaska every 4 years and then the leaders do whatever they want while nobody pays attention.
Living in a democracy means you cannot divorce yourselves from the actions of your leaders, unlike people who do not have the luxury of the vote.
Re: The Use of Computers to Support Oppression
#14I vaguely recall computerized lists were used during the Rwanda massacres as well, but can't find any citation.
Re: The Use of Computers to Support Oppression
#15The problem here is the oppression, not the computers. An "Access Control System" is a banal piece of software that decides who to let in and who to keep out. Hotels, banks, golf clubs ... and oppressive regimes, they all use one.
You could also write an article on "The Use of Clothing to Support Oppression", and again, the problem is not with the clothes.
Re: The Use of Computers to Support Oppression
#16I hate how you americans kicked South Africa for the same things they stopped to do, like, just fifteen years earlier. That's like punching other people instead of saying "sorry, I did bad things". Bonus thing, you ruin a country in process.
The initial leaders of the disinvestment-from-South-Africa campaign were some of the same people who were involved in the American Civil Rights Movement (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Sullivan), so it seems pretty consistent to me. They opposed white segregationists in the U.S. first, then once they'd won significant victories there, took the fight to white segregationists elsewhere.
The US establishment was definitely not on board with that until years later. When the disinvestment campaigns were launched in the mid-1970s, and sanctions efforts had some initial success in the UN General Assembly, the US and UK opposed any Security Council involvement (i.e. anything with teeth).
It was only in 1986, following a significant escalation in violence and repression in South Africa, that the anti-apartheid activists in the US Congress (led by another Civil Rights Movement veteran, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Dellums) finally got a bill passed--- and Ronald Reagan vetoed that bill. It was eventually passed again over his veto.
Re: The Use of Computers to Support Oppression
#17I hate how you americans kicked South Africa for the same things they stopped to do, like, just fifteen years earlier. That's like punching other people instead of saying "sorry, I did bad things". Bonus thing, you ruin a country in process.
So if you ever did something bad, you can't stop other people doing it? An ex-thief gone straight should watch and do nothing as someone is robbed in front of him? A reformed killer must turn away as someone is murdered in front of her? A nation that manages to start on the road away from its prejudices must turn a blind eye to the suffering of other peoples?
There is this thing where former alchoholics fight alchohol, former addicts fight drugs and former racists fight racism. They would do that overzealously, theyr involvement may cast a shadow over the whole fight, and they would hurt innocent, or not so much guilty, people by trying to make others pay for their own sins. This happens.
If an ex-thief becomes a sheriff, I say I'd be cynical and worried.
Re: The Use of Computers to Support Oppression
#18The problem here is the oppression, not the computers. An "Access Control System" is a banal piece of software that decides who to let in and who to keep out. Hotels, banks, golf clubs ... and oppressive regimes, they all use one. You could also write an article on "The Use of Clothing to Support Oppression", and again, the problem is not with the clothes.
That's too blase for my taste.
Technologies are transformative: they create the opportunities for agents to commit entirely new kinds of actions, good and bad. You can't decouple their existence from the new things that result from them (from Nazi death camps to apartheid to the contemporary Panopticon State), any more than you can try to decouple, say, totalitarian political systems from the oppression they entail.
This doesn't mean that we should smash all our technology and all return to the farm. It just means we've got to think critically and pro-actively about how to make sure technology is used for good.
Re: The Use of Computers to Support Oppression
#19I hate how you americans kicked South Africa for the same things they stopped to do, like, just fifteen years earlier. That's like punching other people instead of saying "sorry, I did bad things". Bonus thing, you ruin a country in process.
The initial leaders of the disinvestment-from-South-Africa campaign were some of the same people who were involved in the American Civil Rights Movement (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Sullivan ), so it seems pretty consistent to me. They opposed white segregationists in the U.S. first, then once they'd won significant victories there, took the fight to white segregationists elsewhere. The US establishment wa…
Still I don't understand why South Africa.
Most of world's countries are in sad state, especially africa. South Africa was unique because it was both successful and messed up at the same time. It could go either up and down. I have the feeling they went down: more messed up than successful today. I don't exactly know what happens there, tho.
The question is: why "nuke" (economically and politically) this particular country and not any other?
Re: The Use of Computers to Support Oppression
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
The initial leaders of the disinvestment-from-South-Africa campaign were some of the same people who were involved in the American Civil Rights Movement (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Sullivan ), so it seems pretty consistent to me. They opposed white segregationists in the U.S. first, then once they'd won significant victories there, took the fight to white segregationists elsewhere. The US establishment wa…
Still I don't understand why South Africa. Most of world's countries are in sad state, especially africa. South Africa was unique because it was both successful and messed up at the same time. It could go either up and down. I have the feeling they went down: more messed up than successful today. I don't exactly know what happens there, tho. The question is: why "nuke" (economically and politically) this particular c…
Because their ruling class was a brutish sibling to the Anglosphere's, and we were giving them massive amounts of economic and military support to dominate and terrorize 90% of their country's population in what was effectively a set of really large concentration camps?