Friday, January 30, 2009

Google Earth and Terrorists

The Flat World Gives and Takes

Criminals have used telephones and mobile phones since they were invented. Drug smugglers use airplanes and boats, radios and satellite phones. Bank robbers have long used cars and motorcycles as getaway vehicles, and horses before then. I haven't seen it talked about yet, but the Mumbai terrorists used boats as well. They also wore boots. They ate lunch at restaurants, drank bottled water, and breathed the air. Society survives all of this because the good uses of infrastructure far outweigh the bad uses, even though the good uses are - by and large - small and pedestrian and the bad uses are rare and spectacular. And while terrorism turns society's very infrastructure against itself, we only harm ourselves by dismantling that infrastructure in response - just as we would if we banned cars because bank robbers used them too.

11 comments:

Jonathan said...

Terrorists using Twitter, that's crazy! Maybe when you register for Twitter, it should ask if you are a terrorist or not. That will help us weed out the bad guys. Fool-proof plan eh?

steve said...

Okay... I’m just going to say it. We have to educate terrorism out of the world to whatever extent we can, after that, the rest has to be destroyed.
-Matthew

Dave said...

Destroy the rest of education, terrorism or the world? Is it possible to destroy terrorism? Historically terrorists, guerrilla fighters, and similar low cost warfare has proven to be resilient if not always successful. According to Machiavelli you need to appease the culture that harbor these groups which, essentially removes their resources; rendering them impotent. If you can't beat 'em or join 'em, have them join you.
I can't help but think of the Americans use of the natives against the French, Spanish and English. Any thoughts?

maryn said...

There will always be “bad guys” no matter how much we may try to get rid of them. If we tried to keep them from using technology we would likewise have to stop using it. But, they would still find away to further their cause.

JCampos said...

I agree Maryn, terrorism is always going to be around whether we like it or not. Yeah we would like to end it to stop any threat but is it really possible? who knows. I think this world is too humongous to try and control things like that. If we stop it in the middle east, another group most likely will form somewhere else!

steve said...

That is funny. Terrorism is what I was saying we should destroy. I don’t know if Machiavelli's concepts would apply to this situation. The enemies of the state that he spoke of were nationalistic and power driven in nature, not religious fundamentalists.

Unknown said...

I find it scary how easy terrorists can track us and with all the new technology advances. However, i do think Google earth is very cool and useful. There are always going to be terrorists no matter what we do that's the reality. All we can do is hope for the best and prevent terrorists the best way we can.

SamWofford said...

I think they should restrict what you can see on Google earth, its cool to be able to see the white house and Washington D.C. but at the same time its giving terrorists a blueprint.

Elise2013 said...

People by nature use the resources available to them to achieve their goals and terrorists are not any different. they're going to find a way to terrorize with or without twitter.

There are good and bad people in the world always, but the reason bad people get away with things most of the time is because the good people didn't have the chutzpah to stop it or the forethought to see it coming.

Juan Carlos Farias102 said...

there will always be terrorists no matter what they try to do. there's just no way you can truly stop them.

scott said...

well dave if you did the later you would incidently take care of all three. who started this silly topic anyway? Dan?...........