To those of you in the 60s and 70s who were anti-computer

[Deja Q]

The mindset as seen in many TV shows, especially the LIBERAL ONES (e.g. ALL IN THE FAMILY), you guys are 100% CORRECT.

Technology has allowed more errors, exploitation, and more crimes to take place.

(I've been tracking down why a check was refused. This happened once before. The problem, BOTH TIMES, was an error with the check processing company (more privatized bullshit). My bank said everything is fine.)

So, all the computer folks can claim how great they are. But I spit in their faces. This stuff doesn't make lives easier, not when it's easy to have records screwed up or other things.

(please move to GD if need be.)

[tavalon]

1. OTOH

DU is here because of the explosion of computers and the need for fellow to progressives to connect.

[Deja Q]

2. So is Free Republic. So is a major contributor to OFFSHORING.

Explosion of comptuers and the INTERNET.

Nice try, A+ for attempt, but there are downsides too.

I do see your point, but my issue is the bigger picture. How is technology helping the larger picture? I only see it hurting.

[tavalon]

3. Of course there are downsides

I used to have a life before I got addicted to this damn board! ;)

[Deja Q]

4. ROFL! Same here!

:D You're right, there would be no DU. And communities with like-minded people would be harder to find.

Still, if the banking system was nixed we wouldn't have those problems. :D

[Enraged_Ape]

6. Ah, yes. Networks pressed the accelerator pedal on globalization.

We have networked computers to thank for making it cheaper to produce goods on the other side of the planet than it is to produce them here, as they used to be.

About our only real American industries left are NASCAR, country music, and high-quality porn.

ON EDIT: And, of course, weapons manufacturing.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

8. High-quality porn?

That's debatable.

I tells ya, if I see one more generic blonde with two halves of soccer balls 3 feet apart instead of breasts, I'll become asexual.

[Enraged_Ape]

9. Well, at least our porn has good production values

Some of it even has special effects that rival Star Wars.

The rest of the world doesn't even come close. I think they're just a half a step away from those Super-8 reels you used to see advertised in the back of men's magazines.

[punpirate]

5. I was always worried...

... about privacy concerns (knew of someone in the `70s who'd worked on the NCIC system and quit because of the massive privacy problems that large, loosely managed systems would create).

All by its lonesome, the personal computer has been a remarkable tool. But, as part of wide networks, as millions of point in that giant net, as an unwitting part of huge databases of personal data, privacy is compromised, irrefutably and perhaps irrevocably.

[tavalon]

7. Yep

And it's damn hard to get off the grid.