The Information Age was born not in Silicon Valley at the close of the 20th Century, but in Berlin in 1933. Few even understand the very term 'the Information Age'. It is, quite simply, the individualisation of statistics. It was invented by IBM expressly for Adolf Hitler to provide him with the first of many solutions to Germany's perceived problems that led to the Holocaust. Indeed, there was no solution IBM was unwilling to provide Hitler with.
Until the 12-year strategic alliance between IBM and the Nazi regime, people could be counted manually, but not individually identified. At the end of the 19th Century, IBM invented data processing with its Hollerith punch card system - that is, a simple process of storing information on individuals, places, objects and processes by mechanically punching select holes in designated columns and rows.
It's not a good precedent with regard to what is being proposed now. The article goes on to point out that the tools of tyranny were in other places developed not for tyrannous purposes but for research and so forth, but were all too easily co-opted into oppression. That's my fear with the things.
No2ID :: View topic - Mail on Sunday: Why Adolf Hitler relied on ID cards: On Del.icio.us: identity, ID_cards, Nazi, IBM, information_age
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