colonel@sunybcs.UUCP (Col. G. L. Sicherman) (12/16/86)
> And I am claiming that technologists, by and large, are less > competent than they might be by virtue of their ignorance of the > criteria professors of moral philosophy, theologians, nuclear plant > designers, and politicians bring to bear on such decisions. This seems too strong to me. Every specialist develops the habit of thinking within his specialized system. That's what being a special- ist is about. I do not trust AI researchers to make wise decisions, nor do I trust moral philosophers ,, politicians. They're all slaves to special habits. There's a young meta-science called (confusingly) Cybernetics. It studies the outer meanings of working with and using computers. That is, it strives to identify and override the automatic assumptions and habits of computer people--to escape from within the "system." It is one way out. A better one is for specialists from different fields to discuss, on several orders of magnitude beyond the present volume, what is being done. And that, perhaps, is where the Net comes in ... -- Col. G. L. Sicherman UU: ...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!colonel CS: colonel@buffalo-cs BI: colonel@sunybcs, csdsiche@sunyabvc