Should we use the Internet ?
Spock | 15.06.2004 13:10
There seems to be no mention on this and other left of centre and activist websites concerning the moral problem with using computers and the Internet.
Take first the Internet itself, invented by the US Department of Defence (and still monitered by them) for the use of securing military communications during a Nuclear war. The World Wide Web is run by an un-elected industrial consortia who decide the rules.
The average desk top computer. Either PC or Mac the problems are the same. Apple is a US multi national with a history of passing production work to third world nations for slave wages.
PC's are manufactured from parts made by organisations like IBM, Seagate, 3Com, Intel, AMD, Texas Instruments etc. Companies that none of us would want anything to do with.
The operating software is either from Apple see above) Microsoft (enough said) or a grouping of large multinationals like IBM, Sun Microsystems, and HP who give the impression that Linux is somehow a free version of Unix
Even the web browsers that are widely available cause concern. I presume nobody on Indymedia uses Microsoft Explorer but Mozzila is owned and run by Sun Microsystems and the academic written alternatives are mostly garbage so where do we go from here ?
We must question the whole Internet / Web world and ask if we are all supporting the Industrial - Defence world with our own actions.
Take first the Internet itself, invented by the US Department of Defence (and still monitered by them) for the use of securing military communications during a Nuclear war. The World Wide Web is run by an un-elected industrial consortia who decide the rules.
The average desk top computer. Either PC or Mac the problems are the same. Apple is a US multi national with a history of passing production work to third world nations for slave wages.
PC's are manufactured from parts made by organisations like IBM, Seagate, 3Com, Intel, AMD, Texas Instruments etc. Companies that none of us would want anything to do with.
The operating software is either from Apple see above) Microsoft (enough said) or a grouping of large multinationals like IBM, Sun Microsystems, and HP who give the impression that Linux is somehow a free version of Unix
Even the web browsers that are widely available cause concern. I presume nobody on Indymedia uses Microsoft Explorer but Mozzila is owned and run by Sun Microsystems and the academic written alternatives are mostly garbage so where do we go from here ?
We must question the whole Internet / Web world and ask if we are all supporting the Industrial - Defence world with our own actions.
Spock