🚀 go-pugleaf

I  agree  that  those  of  us  with  access  to  computers  and  to  the
international  e-  mail  network  should  be conscious  that  we  are  a
privileged class. I  even agree that the use of  computers may structure
our thought and  our social relations in ways that  we wouldn't entirely
like if  we thought about  them in the abstract.  But I doubt  very much
that  there is  an international  capitalist conspiracy  to that  or any
other effect.  I should also  like to know  what evidence there  is that
'the Catholic Church  tried to suppress the printing  press'. That's the
sort of thing that people with a  conscience try to do - i.e. people who
write self-congratulatory pieces on their perspicacity in seeing through
the wicked  conspiracies of our 'bosses'....  Nobody controls everything
that  happens, and  nobody need  control a  computer- literate  society.
Hurray for diversity and multiple bulletin boards.

And yes,  I would much  rather this list  was restricted to  comments on
ethics in  computing: that's a new  and interesting area. Drugs  and the
duty to obey the law have been better discussed by Plato and J.S.Mill.

Best wishes 

Stephen Clark