RE: Modern Technology: Out of Control?

Weslake, Brad BG (Weslake.Brad.BG@bhp.com.au)
Wed, 21 Jan 1998 09:34:41 +1100


First of all, thanks to all those who have provided input. I especially
like David Musick's view of technology as being under distributed
control - there are some good analogies which can be drawn with this and
technology itself, such as robotics. I intend a major part of my
response to be that technology is self-guided and therefore centralised
control (ie. governmental intervention) is unnecessary.

For one example of the difficulty of control/policy-making I am going to
use (surprise surprise) cloning. I have not saved many of the emails on
this list about the issue - how quickly does the archive appear on the
web? If I can access the list postings from last week and earlier it
would be great. If not, it would be good to get some pointers towards
good web sites which treat the issue (although I suspect a quick web
search will do the trick).

Also, I am looking for a technology which does not seem to be
acknowledged by government in policy (yet...) but which may provide
dilemma in the future. Would Artificial Intelligence be appropriate? As
a computer science undergrad this would be my preference, but if anyone
has any better suggestions I would gratefully receive them.

Thanks,

Brad.

> ----------
> From: Weslake, Brad BG
> Subject: Modern Technology: Out of Control?
>
[snip]

> Why do you think the image of modern technology being 'out of
> control' has such a strong appeal? In what ways does technology appear
> difficult to control? For some of the problems you identify, explore
> their implications for government policy-makers. Provide examples for
> your arguments.
>
[snip]