The potential of computers for increasing the control of organizations or society over their members and for invading the privacy of those members has caused considerable concern.The privacy issue has been raised most insistently with respect to the creation and maintenance of data files that assemble information about persons from a multitude of sources. Files of this kind would be highly valuable for many kinds of economic and social research, but they are bought at too high a price if they endanger human freedom or seriously enhance the opportunities of black-mailers. While such dangers should not be ignored, it should be noted that the lack of comprehensive data files has never before been the limiting barrier to the suppression of human freedom.Making the computer the villain in the invasion of privacy or encroachment on civil liberties simply diverts attention from the real dangers. Computer data banks can and must be given the highest degree of protection from abuse. But we must be careful, also, that we do not employ such crude methods or protection as to deprive our society of important data it needs to understand its own social processes and to analyse its problems.Perhaps the most important question of all about the computer is what it has done and will do to man’s view of himself and his place in the universe. The most heated attacks on the computer are not focused on its possible economic effects, its presumed destruction of job satisfaction, or its threat to privacy and liberty, but upon the claim that it causes people to be viewed, and to view themselves, as "machines".What the computer and the progress in artificial intelligence challenge is an ethic that rests on man’s apartness from the rest of nature. An alternative ethic, of course, views man as a part of nature, governed by natural law, subject to the forces of gravity and the demands of his body. The debate about artificial intelligence and the simulation of man’s thinking is, in considerable part, a confrontation of these two views of man’s place in the universe. Too much caution in the use of computers will ().
A. prevent the solution of economic problems
B. cause more suppression of human freedom
C. lead to clumsy methods of protection
D. interfere with our study of society
The potential of computers for increasing the control of organizations or society over their members and for invading the privacy of those members has caused considerable concern.The privacy issue has been raised most insistently with respect to the creation and maintenance of data files that assemble information about persons from a multitude of sources. Files of this kind would be highly valuable for many kinds of economic and social research, but they are bought at too high a price if they endanger human freedom or seriously enhance the opportunities of black-mailers. While such dangers should not be ignored, it should be noted that the lack of comprehensive data files has never before been the limiting barrier to the suppression of human freedom.Making the computer the villain in the invasion of privacy or encroachment on civil liberties simply diverts attention from the real dangers. Computer data banks can and must be given the highest degree of protection from abuse. But we must be careful, also, that we do not employ such crude methods or protection as to deprive our society of important data it needs to understand its own social processes and to analyse its problems.Perhaps the most important question of all about the computer is what it has done and will do to man’s view of himself and his place in the universe. The most heated attacks on the computer are not focused on its possible economic effects, its presumed destruction of job satisfaction, or its threat to privacy and liberty, but upon the claim that it causes people to be viewed, and to view themselves, as "machines".What the computer and the progress in artificial intelligence challenge is an ethic that rests on man’s apartness from the rest of nature. An alternative ethic, of course, views man as a part of nature, governed by natural law, subject to the forces of gravity and the demands of his body. The debate about artificial intelligence and the simulation of man’s thinking is, in considerable part, a confrontation of these two views of man’s place in the universe. What lessons can be learned from the past in this debate().
A. Crime has always been associated with progress.
B. Attacks on freedom are nothing new.
C. The accumulation of data encourages oppression.
D. Privacy has been a neglected issue.
Every minute of every day, what ecologist James Carlton calls a global "conveyor belt" redistributes ocean organisms. It’s a planet wide biological disruption that scientists have barely begun to understand.Dr. Carlton—an oceanographer at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. —explains that, at any given moment, "there are several thousand [marine] species [traveling].., in the ballast water of ships. " These creatures move from coastal waters where they fit into the local web of life to places where some of them could tear that web apart. This is the larger dimension of the infamous invasion of fish destroying, pipe-clogging zebra mussels.Such voracious invaders at least make their presence known. What concerns Carlton and his fellow marine ecologists is the lack of knowledge about the hundreds of alien invaders that quietly enter coastal waters around the world every day. Many of them probably just die out. Some benignly—or even beneficially—join the local scene. But some will make trouble.In one sense, this is an old story. Organisms have ridden ships for centuries. They have clung to hulls and come along with cargo. What’s new is the scale and speed of the migrations made possible by the massive volume of ship—ballast water taken in to provide ship stability—continuously moving around the world...Ships load up with ballast water and its inhabitants in coastal waters of one port and dump the ballast in another port that may be thousands of kilometers away. A single load can run to hundreds of thousands of gallons. Some larger ships take on as much as 40 million gallons. The creatures that come along tend to be in their larva free floating stage. When discharged in alien waters they can mature into crabs, jellyfish, slugs, and many other forms.Since the problem involves coastal species, simply banning ballast dumps in coastal waters would, in theory, solve it. Coastal organisms in ballast water that is flushed into midocean would not survive. Such a ban has worked for the North American Inland Waterway. But it would be hard to enforce it worldwide. Heating ballast water or straining it should also halt the species spread. But before any such worldwide regulations were imposed, scientists would need a clearer view of what is going on.The continuous shuffling of marine organisms has changed the biology of the sea on a global scale. It can have devastating effects as in the case of the American comb jellyfish that recently invaded the Black Sea. It has destroyed that sea’s anchovy fishery by eating anchovy eggs. It may soon spread to western and northern European waters.The maritime nations that created the biological "conveyor belt" should support a coordinated international effort to find out what is going on and what should be clone about it. According to Marine ecologists, transplanted marine species ().
A. may upset the ecosystems of coastal waters
B. are all compatible with one another
C. can only survive in their home waters
D. sometimes disrupt shipping lanes
Every minute of every day, what ecologist James Carlton calls a global "conveyor belt" redistributes ocean organisms. It’s a planet wide biological disruption that scientists have barely begun to understand.Dr. Carlton—an oceanographer at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. —explains that, at any given moment, "there are several thousand [marine] species [traveling].., in the ballast water of ships. " These creatures move from coastal waters where they fit into the local web of life to places where some of them could tear that web apart. This is the larger dimension of the infamous invasion of fish destroying, pipe-clogging zebra mussels.Such voracious invaders at least make their presence known. What concerns Carlton and his fellow marine ecologists is the lack of knowledge about the hundreds of alien invaders that quietly enter coastal waters around the world every day. Many of them probably just die out. Some benignly—or even beneficially—join the local scene. But some will make trouble.In one sense, this is an old story. Organisms have ridden ships for centuries. They have clung to hulls and come along with cargo. What’s new is the scale and speed of the migrations made possible by the massive volume of ship—ballast water taken in to provide ship stability—continuously moving around the world...Ships load up with ballast water and its inhabitants in coastal waters of one port and dump the ballast in another port that may be thousands of kilometers away. A single load can run to hundreds of thousands of gallons. Some larger ships take on as much as 40 million gallons. The creatures that come along tend to be in their larva free floating stage. When discharged in alien waters they can mature into crabs, jellyfish, slugs, and many other forms.Since the problem involves coastal species, simply banning ballast dumps in coastal waters would, in theory, solve it. Coastal organisms in ballast water that is flushed into midocean would not survive. Such a ban has worked for the North American Inland Waterway. But it would be hard to enforce it worldwide. Heating ballast water or straining it should also halt the species spread. But before any such worldwide regulations were imposed, scientists would need a clearer view of what is going on.The continuous shuffling of marine organisms has changed the biology of the sea on a global scale. It can have devastating effects as in the case of the American comb jellyfish that recently invaded the Black Sea. It has destroyed that sea’s anchovy fishery by eating anchovy eggs. It may soon spread to western and northern European waters.The maritime nations that created the biological "conveyor belt" should support a coordinated international effort to find out what is going on and what should be clone about it. Oceanographers are concerned because ().
A. their knowledge of this phenomenon is limited
B. they believe the oceans are dying
C. they fear an invasion from outer-space
D. they have identified thousands of alien webs