Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!lll-lcc!ames!sdcsvax!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!hplabsz!taylor From: sjr@datacube.com (Steve J. Rapaport) Newsgroups: comp.society Subject: Solving social problems Message-ID: <1166@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM> Date: Sat, 5-Dec-87 23:48:36 EST Article-I.D.: hplabsz.1166 Posted: Sat Dec 5 23:48:36 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 10-Dec-87 23:49:17 EST Sender: taylor@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM Lines: 34 Approved: taylor@hplabs Paul Dubuc asks: > Would anyone like to share their ideas on the implications of treating > social problems as technical ones? and mentions that human problems are harder (by orders of magnitude) to solve than technical ones. He is, of course, right, but I think he's missed the point. The original suggestion was that the *medium* of the net be used to help solve social problems. The net, when used as an information exchange, is purely a social, not technical, mechanism. (Like the telephone.) Sure, it needs high tech to work, but that doesn't mean that any solution arrived at by the various *people* brainstorming through it will be a technical one. I think that if there's any hope of solving social problems, it will be done by groups of intelligent, knowledgeable people, who can communicate in an orderly way, with sufficient time delay that they are encouraged to focus on the issues, not the red herrings. It also helps if the communications can be stored and looked at later for fresh insights, and there is some way to tie a response back to the thought that originated it. Usenet meets these requirements, and so is a reasonable medium for exchange of ideas on any social problem. Regardless of the technology required to run it. As to whether a group of computer nerds, even with their heads (figuratively) together, can solve *any* social problem (most of them are still wondering why they can't meet Mr./Ms. Right on soc.singles), well, I leave that for history to decide. Steve Rapaport