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Re: from the horse's mouth

2005-10-29 12:20:21
In message <4363C039(_dot_)4090109(_at_)zurich(_dot_)ibm(_dot_)com>, Brian E 
Carpenter writes:
Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
In message <43632D40(_dot_)7090502(_at_)zurich(_dot_)ibm(_dot_)com>, Brian E 
Carpenter writes:

Eduardo Mendez wrote:


What IETF discuss may hurt thir people, peace, culture.
But I am sure IETF Member do not realize this?
If they were told they would understand.

What people do with technology may have good or bad effects.
That is well understood by all technologists, I think.
But this is not the place to discus the social impact
of our technology.



I don't think I agree with that statement.  In fact, I'm fairly sure I 
do not.

Steve, I'm not suggesting that technologists should duck responsibility.
But I really think there are better fora. In fact, that's one of the
reasons I've always supported the ISOC in its wider role.


As Ned pointed out, a lot of our technology -- especially, but not 
only, security technology -- can't be divorced from its societal 
asepcts.  When I advocate strong cryptography, I'm certainly protecting 
passwords.  But am I also protecting privacy, or am I hindering 
investigations into terrorist organizations?  Is OPES a way to localize 
content or is it a way to enable censorship?  Will charging for email 
-- or rather, the protocols for doing so -- help stop spam, or will it 
cut off the third world from the net?

Amorality among scientists, engineers, and technologists has gotten the 
world into a lot of trouble.  I prefer to think about the consequences 
of what I do.

                --Steven M. Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb



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