private citizen. The home computerist is motivated
    by a desire for profits. The Education Department
    might build a relational database of private schools
    which do not accept federal funds. The bureaucrat
    can cluck his tongue at the uncontrolled schools and
    promise to "do something" about it. The owners of
    the schools will always be one step ahead because
    their desktop machines match the bureaucrats byte
    for byte.
    
    In the room where I work for one of America's
    largest corporations, there are two computers. Each
    uses a 16 bit processor. Each has I megaDyte of
    RAM. Each has about 500 megabytes of disk
    capacity. One covers 16 square feet and cost
    $500,000. The other covers 1 square foot and cost
    I% as mucht
    
    The Soviet 13nion cannot permit the introduction
    of this kind of power to its people. The same Party
    members who scrimp and save for a car will acquire
    computers and will be able to meet the State on its
    own terms.
    
    When the KGB inputs data on Comrade
    Smithsky's black market vodka business, the good
    Comrade can also, with some effort, replace that file
    with a letter of merit for patriotism.
    
    These principles apply to any totalitarian state:
    Chile, Nicaragua, North Korea, South Korea...
    
    The analogies between the computer and the
    automobile break down when you consider that the
    auto made it possible to travel 60 miles in one hour
    while the computer makes it possible to"travel"
    without leaving your seat and to do so at almost the
    speed of light.
    
    Analogies between the computer and the gun also
    feil when you consider that guns kill and computers
    expand the- mind. For a nation which contemplates
    War, the thought of an arsenaI full of guns is
    comforting. It is not so easy to see the State issuing
    its people computers to repel an increase in
    productivity by the Other Side.
    
    In point of fact, just as the Pen is Mightier tban
    the Sword, the Computer is Mightier than the Gun.
    No commando team can mobilize quicker than a
    local area network. No shock troops can
    
    outmaneuver a bulletin board service.
    
    This was proven by the events of the summer of
    1983. Hackers were pursued by the FBI for breaking
    into a computer system at Sandia Labs. The Feds
    made fewer than 20 arrests and called it a"ma.}or
    bust." The [irst victim wasn't in jail before word was
    out via Compu-Serve that the Feds were on the
    
    The American Republic was, for 200 years,
    protected from a fascist coup by the fact that~ the
    People held more guns than the Army. Now, our
    freedom is guarded by the home computer which
    can access, correlate,-and store data as well as
    identify, copy and p4rge data. America today is a
    nice place to raise kids because, in the words of Jim
    Morrison, "They got the Guns, but we got the
    Numberst"
    
    The rulers of the USSR aren't the only ones who
    live in fear of the personal computer. ln the Fall of
    1984, 60 M,nutes ran a feature called.'Homework.~'
    The piece dealt with women who manufacture
    garments in their hames for wholesalers. They
    interviewed a person who owns one of the wholesale
    companies. This guy said that the International
    Women's Garment Union wants to stop the home
    worker as a prelude to controlling the many home
    computer businesses. When 60 Minutes took that
    comment to a Union spokesman, he agreedthat yes,
    indeed, the home computer industry is their next
    target!
    
    Your home computer is a tool for your freedom.
    Like the printing press of old, it is the peoples'friend
    and the ~yrant's foe.