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Full-Text Articles in Science and Technology Studies
The Millennium Problem And The Marketplace Of Ideas: Insights Into Freedom, Responsibility, And Technological Development, Scott Devito, Dennis R. Cooley
The Millennium Problem And The Marketplace Of Ideas: Insights Into Freedom, Responsibility, And Technological Development, Scott Devito, Dennis R. Cooley
Scott DeVito
A close analysis of the Y2K problem provides valuable insight into the ethics of technology. We contend that the primary cause of the Y2K problem is a lack of, what John Stuart Mill calls, originality (and the related loss of freedom, diversity, and understanding) in the information technology (IT) industry. If the various IT companies had supported originality, then they would have empowered their employees to respond to the foreseen difficulties associated with the change of millennium long before these difficulties blossomed into the current worldwide problem. We contend that originality, which requires and nourishes both intellectual vigor and diversity, …