In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Brian E Carpenter writes:
>Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
>> In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, 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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