IT: Control vs/and communication (was Aunt Reet)

[Monte Davis]

John Carvill sez:
 
> The internet may be 'anarchic' now, but it's an easily 
> monitored anarchy.

And we will learn about every step towards monitoring from the EFF, Wired,
ten thousand hacker sites, etc... and 12 to 24 hours later, about the new
workarounds, anonymizers, forwarding servers, cutouts, etc. that will
neutralize those steps.

Of course the Powers That Be, from Murdoch to Moscow to McLean to MI6, will
continue to push for control: it's what they do. But the tools and skills
involved -- the same ones for hacking as for control -- are far more
affordable and widely distributed outside government and megacorps than they
were in 1970. And fantasies about ECHELON notwithstanding, the sheer volume
of Internet traffic will stay far ahead of any comprehensive monitoring
capability for the foreseeable future.

As for the glitch that sets off nuclear war: hey, I love Dr. Strangelove,
too, but human stupidity managed to walk us into two world wars very nicely,
unaided by computers. I'm all for getting rid of 95% of the nuclear weapons
in existence, but "an errant '=' sign in a crucial piece of code" is well
down my list of concerns. If you and your neighbor have heavy machine guns
and rocket launchers in your closets, basements and attics, it would be more
productive to wonder why  you need them, and get rid of the suckers, than to
fret about whether their safety switches are wonky.

-Monte