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Orwell was an optimist (says Bill Joy)
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html
In the cover story of the new Wired. Bill Joy (invented vi, BSD unix, Java
-- sorta, Jini, founded Sun, and more) writes in a manner that belies his
name. the 11 on-line page long article, is anything but joyous. still it
is a good read and raises questions and postulates evils that Orwell could
not have imagined. joy wonders aloud just how right are the arguments of
Ted Kaczynski (hint joy finds plenty right on target).
A small sample:
"I think it is no exaggeration to say we are on the cusp of the further
perfection of extreme evil, an evil whose possibility spreads well beyond
that which weapons of mass destruction bequeathed to the nation-states, on
to a surprising and terrible empowerment of extreme individuals."
Then he backs this claim up with extensive and pretty deep speculations
wrapped in personal experience as well as tales from atomic research and
nano research. A must read.
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Paul Jones
"We must protect our precious bodily fluids!" General Jack D Ripper
http://MetaLab.unc.edu/pjones/ at the Site Formerly Known As SunSITE.unc.edu
pjones@MetaLab.unc.edu voice: (919) 962-7600 fax: (919) 962-8071
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