[IP] more on Google Maps Imagery and National Security
Begin forwarded message:
From: Rob Raisch <info@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: June 10, 2005 10:44:40 AM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Ip ip <ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [IP] Google Maps Imagery and National Security
If we were to outlaw everything terrorists might use to perpetrate
their crimes, we would live in a world without books, libraries,
colleges, trade schools, computers, calculators, two-way radios, cell
phones, wristwatches, alarm clocks, washing machines, microwave
ovens, street maps, copper wire, transistors, cigarette lighters,
matches...the list is almost endless.
As readers of this list might remember, one of my favorite topics is
how people modify technology created for one purpose to serve
another: Speak-N-Spell(tm)s used as instruments of experimental
electronic music, Furby(tm)s hacked to say and do new things, BIC(tm)
pens used to open im*pen*etrable bicycle locks. Everyday it seems,
we hear of some new, startling example of humanity's boundless
ingenuity.
So it seems the problem of terrorism must be addressed within a
larger context.
Rather than trying to control access to "dangerous" knowledge,
shouldn't we be concentrating on understanding why dangerous people
do the things they do, and apprehending them? As I am sure we have
all heard, Stewart Brand once said: "Information wants to be free",
but I wonder how many of our elected officials really understand what
this seemingly simple statement means.
/rr
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