piner@pur-phy.UUCP (Richard Piner) (11/15/85)
Posted: Fri Sep 20, 1985 3:10 PM EDT Msg: LGIF-2074-3799
From: RPARK
To: WHATSNEW
CC: RPark
Subj: What's New
WHAT'S NEW, Friday, September 20, 1985 Washington, D.C.
1. "EXPORT CONTROLLED SESSIONS," which is the DoD euphemism
for sessions at technical meetings that are restricted on the
basis of citizenship, have been ruled out by the presidents
of 12 engineering and technical societies in a letter to
Secretary of Defense Weinberger. The letter states bluntly
that the 12 societies "will not be responsible for, nor will
they sponsor, closed or restricted access technical sessions
at meetings or conferences conducted under their auspices."
Robert R. Wilson signed as president of the American Physical
Society. Other societies whose presidents signed include the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the
American Association of Engineering Societies, the Optical
Society of America, and the American Chemical Society.
2. THE LEAKAGE OF WESTERN TECHNOLOGY to the Soviet Union is a
more serious problem than previously suspected according to a
Pentagon report released this week. The release of the
report appears to be timed to reinforce the tough image the
Administration is attempting to project before the November
arms talks. Weinberger took the occasion to argue that the
US should reduce the number of Soviet scientists we allow to
visit. The Georgetown University Center for Strategic and
International Studies, on the other hand, released a study
entitled "Securing Technological Advantage: Balancing Export
Controls and Innovation" that concludes that the contribution
of technology transfer to Soviet weapons capabilities has
been exaggerated. The Georgetown Center generally registers
on the extreme right on issues and the 13 member panel that
conducted the two year study, which was chaired by David
Shore, an RCA Vice-President, and includes Edward Teller,
Frederick Seitz, and Harold Agnew could hardly be accused of
a liberal bias.
3. THE SUPERCOMPUTER ACCESS CONTROVERSY, which also stems
from technology transfer concerns, may suffer from the
bureaucratic lag that has plagued the export control program.
By the time controls are imposed, the technology in question
is often already out and the only effect of the controls is
to worsen our trade balance. According to reports in the
trade publication Computerworld almost a year ago, the Soviet
Union has a 200 megaflop computer labeled the PS-2000 and are
even reported to have sold one to India, which was blocked
from purchasing a US supercomputer. There are even reports
that China has built a supercomputer modeled after the Cray I
called the Galaxy YH1. If these reports are true, the
controversy created by the efforts of the NSF to persuade the
academic supercomputer centers to accept access restrictions
was unnecessary.
Robert L. Park
American Physical Society THAT'S ALL 9/20/85