In the article by Paul Edwards, it is stressed that the US defence was the single most important reason for the development of advanced computers. The arms race and the technological competition between the US and the Soviet Union in the Cold War period resulted in extensive scientific research, which gave birth to computers. But there is a certain risk involved in this justification.
Risk, in this context, has a more subtle meaning. Take for example, the EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) in India. It was discovered by a software engineer that that these EVMs could be hacked into and the poll results could be viewed and changed. In fact, the hacking was possible in two ways – one, by using a Bluetooth connection and a hacking code and two, by tampering with an easily detachable memory chip that recorded the votes of hundreds of voters. The Election Commission, by neglecting this huge flaw, has put millions of Indian citizens at risk. The single most important aspect of the Indian governance – democracy – could be potentially mean nothing if the poll results did not reflect the choice of voters. Therefore it is crucial for the Election Commission to take responsibility for its slackness. After all, the Election Commission is the only link, although weak, between Indians citizens and their government.
Coming back to the Cold War context, the risk factor by such a justification is the assumption that computers would not have been developed if not for the perceived need for national security by the US. It is a heavy thought for all of us that our PCs are a result of military research and that they were developed from the ENIAC - the machine that computed ballistics tables for missiles that killed thousands of people.
By Pranav R Kamat
References:
1. The Risks Digest
2. From “Impact” to Social Process: Computers in Society and Culture by Paul Edwards
3. An Unforseen Revolution: Computers and Expectations, 1935 - 1985 by Paul Ceruzzi
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