http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~unger/myBlog/endsandmeansblog.html（Stephen H. Unger教授的博客）
Stephen H. Unger教授退休前曾在哥伦比亚大学计算机与电子工程系工作。进入哥大前，他曾在贝尔实验室工作过5年。除了计算机领域的研究外，他喜爱琢磨技术进步造成的的社会影响、特别是负面影响，并且做了不少研究，出版过著作《控制技术：道德与有责任的工程师》（"Controlling Technology: Ethics and the Responsible Engineer", 2nd Ed., 1994, Wiley）等。
Stephen H. Unger教授的自我介绍
I am an engineer. My degrees are in electrical engineering and my work has been in the digital systems area, mainly digital logic, but also computer organization, software and theory. I am a Professor, Emeritus, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Columbia University (retired 6/08 after four decades at Columbia). Before joining the Columbia faculty, I worked at Bell Labs for about five years, and while at Columbia I worked in industry (e.g., at IBM, and RCA Laboratories) often during summers and sabbaticals, as well as doing some consulting work.
I have always been interested in the social implications of technology and have done a lot of work in this area, giving talks, writing articles and doing some organizing. Topics I have been actively involved in include engineering ethics, resisting government imposed secrecy in technology, environmental issues. I wrote, "Controlling Technology: Ethics and the Responsible Engineer", 2nd Ed., 1994, Wiley. (Also authored two books on digital logic).
My email address is unger(at)cs(dot)columbia(dot)edu
1.Stephen H. Unger教授博文摘录之一：
http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~unger/articles/goodPeople.html
Why Good People Vote For Bad People？
（为什么好选民却为坏候选人投票？）
March 24, 2015
Almost two thirds of all eligible voters did not vote in the 2014 congressional elections [1]. A majority of Americans agree that public affairs are going badly, and that politicians are not trustworthy [2][3][4][5]. There are virtually no well known politicians who are not greatly distrusted by substantial numbers, usually by majorities, of the population. There are no undisputed, highly regarded leaders of either major party. Nowadays, the winner of an election is usually a bad candidate, whose principal opponent is considered by most voters to be even worse. What accounts for this dismal situation?
What's the problem?
Many decent, well meaning, intelligent, educated people, hold various invalid, or harmful, or irrational beliefs. They often vote for candidates whose behavior in office is inconsistent with their own views. Why?
It isn't that people are stupid, or uneducated, or mean, or corrupt. Most ordinary people not in politics, are decent, and intelligent enough so that, if reasonably informed, they are likely to arrive at valid conclusions with respect to public affairs. But, in practice, a majority of people seem unable to act intelligently in the realm of politics, even when their goals are sensible and benign.
It is quite common to find intelligent, honest, well intentioned people disagreeing with one another on their election day choices. Since they can't all be right, it follows that many good people pull the wrong levers (archaic language; they are putting X's in the wrong boxes, or pushing the wrong buttons).
One fundamental problem is that, in the area of human relations, there are no precise, objective, means for determining what is the "best" course of action. This is very different from the fields of science and technology, where there are well established, effective, methods and traditions for evaluating ideas. These work very well, tho there are rare cases where errors remain undetected for considerable periods of time. The field where filtering out errors is most effective is mathematics, where there are precise methods for determining the validity of assertions. (There are, however, mathematical problems with no known solutions.)
That does not mean that there is no such thing as right or wrong with respect to morality. Over the ages, philosophers have clearly established, for example, that, with minimal exceptions, truth telling is important in human relations. It is obviously essential for progress in science and technology. There is wide agreement about the importance of certain kinds of behavior in promoting amicable relations among people. Dishonesty, selfishness, cruelty, greed, are generally understood to be incompatible with amicable relations among people.
While most people are generally decent, there are, unfortunately, some nasty people around, including some who are cruel, greedy, selfish, dishonest. Sadly, a disproportionately large number of politicians are power hungry, greedy, dishonest, and often gutless.
2.Stephen H. Unger教授博文摘录之二：
http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~unger/articles/technologyProgress.html
Is Progress in Technology Always Beneficial?
（技术进步总是有益的吗？）
May 26, 2014
We are living at a time when great advances have been made, and are continuing to be made, in many areas of science and technology. These advances are having a major impact on our lives, and this will probably continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. This may, at first, seem to be a very positive prospect, but there are important reasons to be concerned. Let's start with the benign effects.
The plus side of technology(技术的正面价值)
By the age of 44, Salmon Chase, Secretary of the Treasury in Lincoln's cabinet, and later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was a widower, not once, not twice, but three times. His wives died at ages 20, 23, and 32. Four of his six children died before attaining adulthood. Such tragic experiences were common at the time. Thomas Jefferson's wife died at the age of 34, only two of their six children lived past the age of three, and only one survived him. In all these cases, causes of death were childbirth, or diseases such as scarlet fever, whooping cough, and tuberculosis. (I have given examples of very prominent people falling victim to diseases in order to make clear that even the most well-to-do people were vulnerable.) Thanks to the work of civil engineers constructing effective sewage disposal systems, and safe water supply systems, and to advances in medical science, such as vaccination and antibiotics, such devastating experiences are no longer common.
We enjoy many other benefits of modern technology. The low-cost dissemination of educational and recreational material in printed form is made possible by various devices including modern printing presses and copy machines. The internet facilitates easy access to information of all kinds, opportunities to exchange ideas with, and to debate with, other people, and even to organize around political issues.
The need for drudgery, such as washing clothes and dishes, and pick and shovel work, has been substantially reduced by the use of machinery. Food preparation is eased via such means as refrigerators, gas stoves, and microwave ovens. Communicating with friends and relatives living far away is easy via telephone and the internet.
Some obviously detrimental technologies（一些有明显负面影响的技术）
Unfortunately, there are some technologies that are inherently harmful. Machine guns made modern warfare more deadly, starting with WWI. Later, conventional bombers carrying high explosives, incendiary bombs, and, finally, the first, primitive, atomic bombs, caused the deaths of more civilians than soldiers. Thermonuclear bombs and the means for delivering them (rockets, etc.) threaten entire populations.
While weapons are explicitly designed to have the capability to kill or maim, there are other applications of technology that are intended for benign use, but which have well known major harmful side effects. A prime example is the automobile. Altho much has been done to reduce substantially the frequency and severity of auto accidents in the US, there are still well over 30,000 annual auto accident deaths. Globally, autos kill about 1.2 million people annually, and are the leading cause of deaths of people between the ages 10 and 24. Approximately 260,000 children die in car accidents annually, according to the World Health Organization [1].
Opium and then cocaine were pioneer addictive drugs, produced by relatively simple means from easily grown plants. Modern technology has facilitated their production, and added new synthetic addictive products such as Crystal Meth (crystal methamphetamine). Drug addiction has ruined millions of lives. Meaningful statistics are difficult to find, and it is not easy to estimate the number of deaths caused directly or indirectly by illicit drugs, or even the number of addicts.
...
2.Stephen H. Unger教授博文摘录之三：
http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~unger/articles/patents.html
The Patent Game: Multiple Monopoly
（专利游戏：多重垄断）
September 8, 2007
Our patent system is operating in a very beneficial manner--for lawyers. For others, including inventors, engineers, scientists, and legitimate companies generating and/or using new technology, it is a costly, time-consuming quagmire. In some areas it is significantly slowing technological progress. What are the problems? Can they be solved via fine tuning, or should we consider a very different approach?
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