Friday, December 16, 2005

The enemies of information technology

In 1937, Alan Turing proved that a machine can solve all computable mathematical problems. Thanks to his machine, he later managed to decipher the nazis' cryptography and make sure that the Allied forces won the Second World War. As a 'thank you', the British state forced him to endure a humiliating hormonal treatment against his homosexuality, which ultimately resulted in his suicide.
70 years later, a Swedish conservative party has decided to continue the humiliation.
Three important votings regarding the 'be or not to be' of signal modulation. Three wrongs out of three. The social democrats are the only Swedish party which has voted for software patents, for data retention, and for more stringent 'intellectual property' laws applied on algorithms and an insane prohibition of encryption analysis.
This insanity must end! Let Turing rest in peace.

This posting was lovingly copied & translated from Sweden's best blog, Copyriot.      Kopimi!