Common Sense and Computer Analysis (washingtonpost.com)

Common Sense and Computer Analysis (washingtonpost.com)

I'm always amazed at how people misunderstand computers and computing. We have the most amazing tools at our fingertips, but we don't use them, and maybe don't WANT to use them.

This article begins:
"Irrational paranoia about computer technology threatens to shut down an entire front in the war on terror.

"A prestigious advisory panel has just recommended that the Defense Department get permission from a federal court any time it wants to use computer analysis on its own intelligence files. It would be acceptable, according to the panel, for a human agent to pore over millions of intelligence records looking for al Qaeda suspects who share phone numbers, say, and have traveled to terror haunts in South America. But program a computer to make that same search, declares the advisory committee, and judicial approval is needed, because computer analysis of intelligence databanks allegedly violates 'privacy.'"

The Technology Connection should be required in every school.