dwl@hou4b.UUCP (D Levenson) (01/09/85)
One prerequisite of censorship is that we have censors. Given the current state of the art in artificial intelligence, our censors must, for the time being, be humans. How do we select them? If a censor may read a book or view a film and then decide that the rest of the population would be harmed by it, why is the censor not harmed? If the material is harmful to humans, how should a society protect its censors? If the material is not harmful to the censor, why is it harmful to other humans? Are censors a different species? I'm all in favor of censorship. But I insist on being my own censor. This way, I have not harmed another by forcing him or her to pre-digest potentially harmful material for me. In short, I'm willing to take on the responsibility of pre-digesting my own reading or viewing material, and then deciding whether or not I will accept its message, pass it on to others, or attempt to live by its message. If I were a parent, this might extend to my deciding whether or not to pass it along to my children while I have responsibility for their care. -Dave Levenson AT&T Holmdel