In message <4363C039.4090109@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Brian E Carpenter writes: >Steven M. Bellovin wrote: >> In message <43632D40.7090502@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Brian E Carpenter writes: >> >>>Eduardo Mendez wrote: >> >> >>>>What IETF discuss may hurt thir people, peace, culture. >>>>But I am sure IETF Member do not realize this? >>>>If they were told they would understand. >>> >>>What people do with technology may have good or bad effects. >>>That is well understood by all technologists, I think. >>>But this is not the place to discus the social impact >>>of our technology. >>> >> >> >> I don't think I agree with that statement. In fact, I'm fairly sure I >> do not. > >Steve, I'm not suggesting that technologists should duck responsibility. >But I really think there are better fora. In fact, that's one of the >reasons I've always supported the ISOC in its wider role. > As Ned pointed out, a lot of our technology -- especially, but not only, security technology -- can't be divorced from its societal asepcts. When I advocate strong cryptography, I'm certainly protecting passwords. But am I also protecting privacy, or am I hindering investigations into terrorist organizations? Is OPES a way to localize content or is it a way to enable censorship? Will charging for email -- or rather, the protocols for doing so -- help stop spam, or will it cut off the third world from the net? Amorality among scientists, engineers, and technologists has gotten the world into a lot of trouble. I prefer to think about the consequences of what I do. --Steven M. Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf