BATTLING FOR OURSELVES IN THE ELECTRONIC AND COMPUTER AGE

Remember a few years ago when the whole northeast and east coast of the U.S. was left in the dark for days when the power generating systems all crashed at the same? It was the fault of a computer control system that the designers thought was infallible. This was to be the ultimate efficiency in systems. It was a wake up call, which few today have heeded. Yes they have redesigned the network but if you look around you, you will see many examples of “efficiency” that we take for granted. Our banking systems, our defense systems, many government programs like Social Security and Medicare that millions rely on each day and month. This extends into major corporations  and their marketing and production efforts as well. They are all susceptible in one way or another the electronic “hacking” from abroad. In fact countries that say they are our friends are attacking us this very minute, and we have to defend ourselves mightily.

Author Steve Talbot has written a very thoughtful book called “Devices of the Soul,” which documents and may even frighten you. He writes objectively about the weak points in our infrastructures. He also points out that 65 percent of us spend more time with our computers than we do with each other. There’s another danger point.  Whether we are surrendering intimate details about our personal lives to communicate with online social networks that can cause harm, or exposing ourselves to personal data theft that costs potentially thousands, we have to slow down or stop this sometime.

Talbot’s warnings come to us boldly but so far they have fallen on many deaf ears. What will it take for us to wake up and devise better and more secure electronic infrastructures? Digital technology certainly makes us more efficient. But when efficiency is the only goal, we have no way to know whether we are going in the right direction or wrong direction.