Technologists have failed to listen to non-technologists | Hacker News Reader

Technologists have failed to listen to non-technologists

theguardian.com

29 pointsrbanffy6 comments

I think the problem is more that certain influential technologists have failed to heed the warnings of dissenters in their own field. There have been large bodies of work from technologists critical of the creeping technological panopticon that becomes possible via increased interconnectivity since at least the 1980s.

> I think the problem is more that certain influential technologists have failed to heed the warnings of dissenters in their own field.

Yes, this. Being in tech doesn't mean that you have to be ignorant of all other things.

We encourage and celebrate the "change the world" aspect of tech, but it's easier to change the world for the worse than for the better, and single-minded pursuit of such a goal often results in the pursuers putting on ethical blinders. The ends justify the means... until it turns out the ends weren't good anyway.

> There have been large bodies of work from technologists critical of the creeping technological panopticon ... since at least the 1980s

As someone who was active in AI research in the 1980s, I have to say that I didn't notice these large bodies of work. In contrast one of the specific concerns that I do remember was that the Japanese 5th generation project would leave the western computing industry in the dust, not that it would create a surveillance nightmare. I also remember concerns that the (then) approaches to AI (e.g. rule-based expert systems) would lead to brittle decision making, or that it couldn't scale to real-world problems.

Can you name some of the authors who were publishing panopticon concerns then, or the media they were publishing in?

On authors who were publishing information technology panopticon concerns in the 1980s, or earlier.

Paul Baran:

- "On the Engineer's Responsibility in Protecting Privacy"

- "On the Future Computer Era: Modification of the American Character and the Role of the Engineer, or, A Little Caution in the Haste to Number"

- "The Coming Computer Utility -- Laissez-Faire, Licensing, or Regulation?"

- "Remarks on the Question of Privacy Raised by the Automation of Mental Health Records"

- "Some Caveats on the Contribution of Technology to Law Enforcement"

Largely written/published 1967--1969.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/authors/b/baran_paul.html

Willis Ware, too numerous to list fully, 1960s --1990s. Highlights:

- "Security and Privacy in Computer Systems" (1967)

- "Computers in Society's Future" (1971)

- "Records, Computers and the Rights of Citizens" (1973

- "Privacy and Security Issues in Information Systems" (1976)

- "Information Systems, Security, and Privacy" (1983)

- "The new faces of privacy" (1993)

https://www.rand.org/pubs/authors/w/ware_willis_h.html

Shoshana Zuboff, In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power (1988) Notably reviewed in the Whole Earth Catalog's Signal: Communication Tools for the Information Age (1988).

https://www.worldcat.org/title/in-the-age-of-the-smart-machi...

"Danger to Civil Rights?", 80 Microcomputing (1982)

https://archive.org/stream/80_Microcomputing_Issue_26_1982-0... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14329877)

"Computer-Based National Information Systems: Technology and Public Policy", NTIS (September 1981)

http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/ota/Ota_5/DATA/1981/8109.PDF

"23 to Study Computer ‘Threat’" (1970)

https://www.nytimes.com/1970/03/12/archives/23-to-study-comp...

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy "Privacy and Information Technology" bibliography is largely 1990--present, but contains some earlier references.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/it-privacy/#Bib

Similarly "Privacy"

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/privacy/

US Privacy Act of 1974

https://www.justice.gov/opcl/privacy-act-1974

Invasion of Privacy Act 1971 - Queensland Government, Australia

https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/pdf/inforce/current/...

Arthur R. Miller, The assault on privacy: computers, data banks, and dossiers

https://archive.org/details/assaultonprivacy00mill/page/n7/m...

"The Computer, the Consumer and Privacy" (1984)

https://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/04/weekinreview/the-computer...

Several popular periodical pieces in the early 1970s, though I need to track down links.