Death of the Technologists

Been a bad month for the techies. Starting with Steve Jobs on Oct. 5, followed by Dennis Ritchie on Oct. 12, and then John McCarthy on Oct. 24. We've lost a few of the founding fathers this month.

Prophetic vision

Bruce Schneier calls out someone else's call out of a 1956 Asimov short story, "Let's Get Together". Hard to believe the old man died nearly a decade before 2001.

"Consider further that this news will leak out as more and more people become involved in our countermeasures and more and more people begin to guess what we're doing. Then what? The panic might do us more harm than any one TC bomb."

The Presidential Assistant said irritably, "In Heaven's name, man, what do you suggest we do, then?"

"Nothing," said Lynn. "Call their bluff. Live as we have lived and gamble that They won't dare break the stalemate for the sake of a one-bomb head start."

"Impossible!" said Jeffreys. "Completely impossible. The welfare of all of Us is very largely in my hands, and doing nothing is the one thing I cannot do. I agree with you, perhaps, that X-ray machines at sports arenas are a kind of skin-deep measure that won't be effective, but it has to be done so that people, in the aftermath, do not come to the bitter conclusion that we tossed our country away for the sake of a subtle line of reasoning that encouraged donothingism."