The divide between new technology and what the government understands about it

As a complement to Cory Doctorow’s excellent talk about “The Coming War on General Purpose Computation” (see http://freegovinfo.info/node/3594), an article in Miller-McCune says we need a better understanding of technology before trying to regulate it.

• SOPA Debate Highlights Congress’s Ignorance, By Emily Badger, Miller-McCune (December 29, 2011).

  When members of Congress earlier this month considered the Stop Online Piracy Act — better known to anyone who actually hangs out on the Internet as #SOPA — the most notable feature of the debate turned out to be the sheer ignorance of the elected officials discussing it. One after the other, members of the U.S. House of Representatives professed — nay, bragged about — approaching this weighty legislation from the vantage point of someone who is not “a nerd” or a “tech expert.”

The article highlights the book, The Information Diet by Clay Johnson, which discusses the relationship between power, authority, and information.

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