db@cstvax.UUCP (Dave Berry) (05/09/86)
Over the past year or so there has been a fair bit of disquiet in the British computing press about COCOM restrictions on export of "sensitive" technological material to the Eastern Bloc. People have been jailed for selling PDP-11's to Hungary, and so forth. Some editorials have suggested that th USA is using these rules to its own commercial gain. Also, a year or two ago the USA tried to stop European companies from working on the Siberian gas pipeline, which tranfers gas from the Siberian gas-fields to where it is needed in the Western USSR. Speculation - if the USSR was more technologically sophisticated, the effects of the Chernobyl accident would be reduced. Maybe we should relax some of the COCOM rules. This is not to say that a more open system than the USSR would also encourage safer reactor designs, and that this might be more important. Nor is it to imply that there is such a thing as a "completely safe" nuclear power station. Comments, anyone? -- Dave Berry. CS postgrad, Univ. of Edinburgh ...mcvax!ukc!cstvax!db
falk@sun.uucp (Ed Falk) (05/14/86)
> Speculation - if the USSR was more technologically sophisticated, the > effects of the Chernobyl accident would be reduced. Maybe we should > relax some of the COCOM rules. > > Comments, anyone? Dr. Helen Caldicott had some interesting points along these lines WRT nuclear war. She points out that as the US and USSR put more and more "quick" weapons into the field (such as cruise missiles based in Europe that reach their target in 6 min. instead of 30), that they move closer and closer to adopting "Launch on Warning" policies. This means that the missiles are launched at the first indication of an enemy launch rather than waiting until the leader gets the news and authorizes a counter-strike. The reasons for this are obvious: six minutes are just not enough to detect an enemy launch, prepare a counter-strike AND get Reagan or Gorbachov awake enough to sign the forms. The USSR (I believe) has already said that they will be forced to adopt a launch-on-warning policy if cruise missiles are based in Europe. Now, if we go to a launch-on-warning system, we literally put our lives not only in the hands of our computers, but also in the hands of THEIR computers. The US has several well-publicised incidents where computer error has mistaken things like flocks of geese for incoming missiles. In one case, during the Carter administration, we would have been within one minute of total destruction had we been on launch-on-warning. We don't know how often this happens in the USSR, but considering the sorry shape that their computer industry is in, the situation is probably pretty grim. There are scientists who claim that accidental nuclear war will PROBABLY happen within the next few decades for this reason; simply because of the probabilities adding up. Thus, Dr. Caldicott says "It is in our interest to make sure that the Russians have the best computers we can give them. It would be patriotic to give computers to the Russians". -- -ed falk, sun microsystems