Monday, April 15, 2002

The second Bill Joy reference point was his Wired cover page rant "The Future Doesn't Need Us" from April a couple of years ago:   "The cause of many such surprises seems clear: The systems involved are complex, involving interaction among and feedback between many parts. Any changes to such a system will cascade in ways that are difficult to predict; this is especially true when human actions are involved." This reference was brought up in a discussion about the "ingenuity gap", a concept theorized by Thomas Homer Dixon, a professor at University of Toronto.  For me, although depressing, I found the arguments Joy puts forward resonated strongly with me.  They both argue that our ability to control and understand the impact of our scientific discoveries has long since passed.  There is something about the buzzword-seeking "Ingenuity Gap(tm)" approach to Dixon's work that is off-putting.  Joy seems genuinely concerned.  I think we all should be. [gtb] 1:23:20 PM

I was talking with a couple of friends on the weekend, discussing the state of the world with respect to technology.  I found myself quoting Bill Joy on at least two points.  The first, his clear headed discussion regarding the magnitude of Microsoft's potential security woes.  "Microsoft originally built its operating system and applications for the single-user desktop. When the company finally took notice of networking, its programmers designed applications for the isolated office environment, where all the computers are assumed to belong to friendly colleagues, not adversaries. " I know he's biased against Microsoft, but his technology points are bang on in this column.[gtb] 1:09:47 PM

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