~e; reviving Office of Technology Assessment

[bc <human@electronetwork.org>]

  [sent this to 2 lists already. it is an abstract but very
  important issue for reigning in the renegade policy decisions
  on many issues, to bring some constitutional checks and balances
  to science and technology decision making, by recognizing their
  economic, social, and political influence and impact, regardless
  of politic spin. also, by raising basic awareness, and having
  policy informed by experts from many of the fields in question,
  it could only help when complexity of any issue challenges even
  the greatest minds in any field. please consider writing your
  views, for and-or against, to the .US representative whose URL
  is mentioned below. this is an important initiative and could
  help bring sci-tech awarenes back into the public sphere/debate.]


/ in 1995 the Gingrich revolution canceled the OTA, which was
/ a checks-and-balances upon science and technology decision-
/ making and public policy (and knowledge) about such things.
/ a wirednews article is running today which states that .US
/ representative Holt (democrat, New Jersey) is working on a
/ reassessment of having canceled this program. the complexity
/ of science and technology were able to be argued/debated on
/ shared facts and with balanced analyses which could not be
/ as easily distorted by politicians for reasons other than
/ the economic, social, and political welfare of .US citizens.
/ in return, issues like cryptography, surveillance systems,
/ whether carnivore, echelon, cams and eyescans, ID cards, and
/ other decision-making goes unchecked with regard to the more
/ complex dynamics of such pursuits, such as, future impacts.
/ instead, it seems litigation is the retroactive attempt to
/ bring accountability to such, at times, technically rogue
/ developments. for fair and balanced reviews of sci-tech,
/ please consider writing in support of this effort, at:
/ http://holt.house.gov/feedback.cfm?campaign=holt&type=Contact%20Rush



Congress Reassesses Tech Office

By Dan Mitchell


2:00 a.m. Aug. 7, 2002 PDT
 From Wired News, available online at:
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,54373,00.html

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