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Weizenbaum examines computers and society (1985)
- davidtotoole 12y agoSee also his book "Computer Power and Human Reason." Quote: "The computer has thus begun to be an instrument for the destruction of history. For when society legitimates only those 'data' that ... 'can easily be told to the machine', then history, memory itself, is annihiliated... Soon a supersystem will be built, based on the New York Times' data bank.. from which 'historians' will make inferences about what 'really' happened, about who is connected to whom, and about the 'real' logic of events." That was in 1976.
- davidtotoole 12y agoWeizenbaum is discussing the received doctrine of most computer scientists. Probably most of you think we are making "just tools" and that their end use is not our concern. As you read this article, particularly the later portions, think about all the codenames we've heard since PRISM and how much the problem has grown since 1985.