Title: 'The Definitive UNABOM Page' & 'CRITICAL THINKING about TECHNOLOGY'
Author: Erik Haugsjaa
Topics: archives, technology
Date: 2001
Source: Top of each heading.
Notes: Old archives & reading lists.

Erik Haugsjaa

'The Definitive UNABOM Page' & 'CRITICAL THINKING about TECHNOLOGY'

      weblogz.org/ehaugsjaa

      The Definitive UNABOM Page

      CRITICAL THINKING about TECHNOLOGY

weblogz.org/ehaugsjaa

Source: <web.archive.org/.../weblogz.org/ehaugsjaa>

Thanks for your patience as I move my website.

Erik Haugsjaa (3/10/01)

ehaugsjaa@yahoo.com

Resume

UNABOM case

Critical Thinking About Technology Weblog

MBTA.net

Portalz.org - a Portal Search Engine

Sentient Machine Therapist - Jeanine Salla


The Definitive UNABOM Page

Source: <web.archive.org/.../cs.umass.edu/~ehaugsja/unabom>

Over the course of 18 years (1978-1995), "the Unabomber" (generally accepted to be Ted Kaczynski acting alone) placed or mailed 23 package bombs. These bombs killed 3 and wounded 16. As the first targets were UN-iversities and A-irlines, the FBI gave the case the name UNABOM. The FBI was finally able to apprehend Kaczynski thanks to his brother David and David's wife Linda who recognized the writing in "Industrial Society and Its Future" (aka "The Manifesto") which the FBI finally decided to have the Washington Post publish. His federal trial resulted in the sentence of multiple life terms in the SuperMax prison in Colorado. Currently, Kaczynski has appealed and hopes to get a re-trial in which he is able to defend himself. He has decided he would rather risk receiving a death-sentence than live out his days in prison diagnosed as insane (he insists he is not mentally ill, only that he had a very difficult time with social adjustment as a kid). His book has been postponed, but his allegory was published.

Critical Thinking About Technology

"If you do psychology in an industrial society, the one thing you need most to hide or suppress is the damage we do to the natural environment. If you took that seriously as factor in personal sanity, you would probably have to call off industrial progress."
-- Theodore Roszak


Quick Links


Magazine articles about TK and/or the UNABOM case


Photos


Recently in the USENET discussion group, alt.fan.unabomber


The Appeal


Current News


Trial


UNABOM Case


Victim Responses


TK's Writing


Letters

Useful sites

  • Commerical news sites, gov't trial pages, discussion pages...

More (The old page)

  • Pre-trial (1996 & 1997) analysis & opinion

  • Background... the better news & analysis articles, FAQs

Hits since 8/14/99

"My motive for doing what I am going to do is simply personal revenge. I do not expect to accomplish anything by it. Of course, if my crime (and my reasons for committing it) gets any public attention, it may help to stimulate public interest in the technology question and thereby improve the chances of stopping technology before it is too late; but on the other hand most people will probably be repelled by my crime, and the opponents of freedom may use it as a weapon to support their arguments for control over human behavior. I have no way of knowing whether my action will do more good than harm. I certainly don't claim to be an altruist or to be acting for the 'good' (whatever that is) of the human race. I act merely from a desire for revenge."

-- Ted Kaczynski's Journal, April 1971 (from the sentencing memorandum)

"My statement will be very brief. A few days ago the government filed a sentencing memorandum, the purpose of which was clearly political. By discrediting me personally, they hope to discredit the ideas expressed by the Unabomber. In reality, the government has discredited itself. The sentencing memorandum contains false statements, distorted statements and statements that mislead by omitting important facts. At a later time I expect to respond at length to the sentencing memorandum and also the many other falsehoods that have been propagated about me. Meanwhile, I only ask that people reserve their judgment about me and about the Unabom case until all the facts have been made public."

-- Ted Kaczynski, May 4, 1998, in court (from trial transcript)


CRITICAL THINKING about TECHNOLOGY

Source: <web.archive.org/web/20000818200626/http:/www.cs.umass.edu/~ehaugsja/tech2.html>

Ecopsychology an interview with Theodore Roszak (AdBusters, Jun/Jul 2000)
We are out of touch with nature and, according to the premises of ecopsychology, it is making us sick. (see also Mary Pipher's book: The Shelter of Each Other

Blow up the Internet! (Salon, 24 Jul 2000)
As earnest lefties at a panel wring their hands over the fate of the Internet, three weird characters out of "The Matrix" steal the show. Their website - artactivist.com

Cancer peril of animal organ transplants
The Observer (UK) 23 July 2000
Transplanting animal organs into humans could trigger a global pandemic of a deadly new disease. A new study by British scientists has found that cancer-causing retroviruses are spread relatively easily between different creatures in the wild.

Moletronics Countdown (Wired Jul 2000) - "molecular electronics"
"[W]hen millions of molecular devices take up the space occupied by one transistor, the sheer computing power will be millions of times that of silicon, revolutionizing current notions of processor speed."
...
"Semiconductor technology was patented in 1928, long before anyone really knew what to do with it. It wasn't until 1947 that the first crystal transistor was invented at Bell Labs. "The time it took from the first transistor to the demonstration of an integrated circuit was 11 years. We've just built the first molecular transistor," Reed says with a smirk, "so now we've got 11 years."

Yahoo: Home > Social Science > Science, Technology, and Society Studies

CPSR (Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility): Ethics in Technology

Why The Future Doesn't Need Us. (April 2000, WIRED Magazine)
By Bill Joy (bio), co-founder and Chief Scientist of Sun Microsystems
Our most powerful 21st-century technologies - robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech - are threatening to make humans an endangered species.

Life in the Fourth MillenniumBy Steven Pinker (MIT TechReview, May/June 2000)
Science and technology could transform our world if it weren't for human nature

Union of Concerned Scientists
An independent nonprofit alliance of 50,000 concerned citizens and scientists across the US. UCS was founded in 1969 at MIT by faculty members and students who were concerned about the misuse of science and technology in society. Their statement called for the redirection of scientific research to pressing environmental and social problems.

SLOW DOWN

International Center for Technology Assessment - a non-profit, bi-partisan organization committed to providing the public with full assessments and analyses of technological impacts on society.

The Loka Institute - a non-profit research and advocacy organization concerned with the social, political, and environmental repercussions of research, science and technology.

Campaign for Reponsible Technology

University Programs on Science, Technology, & Society (from North Carolina State University, USA)


Articles

Commercial Alert
Use of Psychology to Exploit Children, Commericalism in schools and education, etc.

Mary Pipher's books are excellent. _The Shelter of Each Other_ for instance.

USeful Technology
From New Scientist mag. About tech in 3rd world.

Confronting Technology
A mountain of books and articles to read


NetFuture - Technology and Human Responsibility

A weekly newsletter. Excellent stuff. Maybe even more useful than the above link to books. Look at the extensive topical index for articles on EDUCATION and COMPUTERS, HUMAN FREEDOM, TECHNOLOGICAL INEVITABILITY, and COMPUTERS vs. PEOPLE


For Teachers

The Computer Delusion
(The Atlantic Monthly; July 1997; The Computer Delusion; Volume 280, No. 1; pages 45-62.) My favorite article about education and computers.
"There is no good evidence that most uses of computers significantly improve teaching and learning, yet school districts are cutting programs -- music, art, physical education -- that enrich children's lives to make room for this dubious nostrum, and the Clinton Administration has embraced the goal of "computers in every classroom" with credulous and costly enthusiasm."

Sudbury Valley Schools - A much better way to do things...

The Internet and Gutenberg
In history's sweep, it may also rank behind the car, the plane and antibiotics among others, Newsweek, 1/24/00

Hang on lads, I’ve got an idea
Writing at the beginning of the 17th century, Francis Bacon, an English philosopher of science, maintained that the three most important inventions were gunpowder, the magnetic compass and printing. We agree, and add another seven made after Bacon died. The Economist Millenium Special, 12/25/99

Some easy reads that will probably be in your local library:

  • Technopoly - The Surrender of Culture to Technology (excerpts), by Neil Postman

  • Absence of the Sacred - The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations (excerpt), by Jerry Mander

ehaugsja@cs.umass.edu 2/19/2000 Please email your questions, suggestions or additions. Thanks!