From the Top Cyber-Sleuth, A Cold Shower on Cyber-Hype,May 29, 2000
Clifford Stoll
When Cliff Stoll, the brilliant man who caught the top East German electronic criminal, speaks on the failures of our cyber-culture, we must listen carefully. “Our networks are awash in data. A little of it's information. A smidgen of this shows up as knowledge….The Internet, that great digital dumpster, confers not power, not prosperity, not perspicacity…Our networks can be frustrating, expensive, unreliable connections that get in the way of useful work. It is an overpromoted hollow world, devoid of warmth and human kindness. The heavily promoted information infrastructure addresses few social needs or business concerns. At the same time, it directly threatens precious parts of our society, including schools, libraries, and social institutions.”
