This is an extract from a letter sent to the editor of 'Computing'.
Letter
28 February 1994
Dear Sir,
I am supporting you in this because I very much want to throw
what little weight I have behind your various attempts to get
those of us who work with computers to lift our eyes from the
computer screens and see something of the big world out
there. A world which, whether we like it or not, we
are a part of and are currently shaping by our combined
efforts.
It is widely believed that our society is now entering a new
age: the 'Information Revolution' parallels the 'Industrial
Revolution', and is expected to change our lives and the nature
of the world around us in as radical a fashion as the Industrial
Revolution did. What frightens me is the way we
acknowledge this as a fact and then do nothing about it.
Technology shapes our society far more effectively than the
Government does. The motor car, the telephone and
television have changed our lives far more than any law or
Ministerial scandal. But while it took half a
century or more to establish a car industry, it takes less than
half a decade to establish a new sector in the software
industry. It takes years to make a brilliant new
design of car available to the public, while a brilliant piece
of software can be made available to millions of people the day
after it is finished.
Much of our society relies on stability: almost all the checks
and balances we have in place assume a traditional pace of
life. The Stock Exchange and the currency markets
developed in a world where information was almost all work of
mouth, and news of a revolution could take months to
arrive. They were not designed to cater for a world
of instant access to an overwhelming quantity of
information. We now have far more of it than any
person can take in, let alone respond to. Computers
and telecommunications are altering the rules of almost all the
games society has played for centuries. Who is
looking at this and daring to think about the potential
consequences?
Your leader articles, and a few of your contributors, indicate
that you are concerned about society and the world we live
in. The beliefs people have about God and religion,
their hopes and fears, their likes and dislikes: these are
important aspects of the world. To ignore then when
we write, design or build computer systems seems to me an
attempt to ignore a fundamental moral
responsibility. Thank you for continuing to remind
us about such issues. Keep it up!