Re: CPT letters to NYT

[Gordon Cook <gcook@tigger.jvnc.net>]

Sorry bob, your answer is that of the technocrat (and perhaps also the 
self interested lobbyist? - I have been scanning a lot of what has gone 
by here and I am relying on memeory which is dangerous.)

I used to be a technocrat on these issues myself.  In 1979 I published an 
11 page article in the June issue of the Futurist -- rhapsodizing in 
adoring terms about Larry Weed and his computerized problem oriented medical 
information system.  And as recently as september of 1993 in my own 
newsletter I published a special report on computer networks and health 
care.  At that point a few folk said to me you know there are some real 
bad privacy implications in some of the stuff you are praising..... I 
regret to say I ignored the warnings.

My awakening came this year between mid may and mid july when I 
researched in washington state and spent 6 weeks wrtting up a 95,000 
word report on how in that state - as stanton mccandlish said here 
tonight in his excellent response to you - all the data bases are coming 
together.  School children are in the process of getting their life long 
electronic dossiers and the smart highway folk are building the tools to 
track our vehicular movement at almost any time at any place.  These are 
only two of many processes by which our lives will be tracked.

You are right in one sense that computerized medical records and data 
bases do hold out the potential to learn what medical treatments work and 
what don't. BUT do I want this future and some extra years of life at the 
expense of my life and childrens lives being an open book to anyone who 
can go prowling through databases? NO!!

Remember what Ivan said to aliosha karamzov in dostoevskii's brothers 
karamazov???  Suppose the lord said to me I will make heaven on earth.  
All men and women will live in peace and harmony for ever.  There is one 
price to which you must agree in order to receive the ticket to the 
kingdom of heaven - the death of an innocent child.  Let her be killed 
and the world will live in peace and harmony.  Ivan karamazov refused and 
gave the lord back his ticket into the kingdom of heaven. I approve of 
what he did.

This and other technology has plenty of unfortunate and difficult choice 
for us to make, and you know your are unfortunately probably right that 
the vast majority of americans don't understand what is at stake here... 
something that certainly makes me fear for the outcome for all of 
us....to whom you are promising the keys to a technology heaven at the 
risk of the loss of our privacy.  Have we no choice but to define the 
future of all of us in monetray terms and NOTHING BUT moentary terms?

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