Feynman on SOPA

As most people reading this post will know, we are currently embroiled in a battle against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), which threatens to end the internet as we know it today.

Internet heavy-users will of course be quick to bash this proposed legislation for all it's worth. But at times, the most empassioned of claims and insults will not do the job. At times, it is necessary to reframe the situation in terms that others, those of us who are not so bright on the most recent technological developments, can perhaps understand better.

In 1955, the late Richard Feynman gave a talk regarding the value of science. While the talk predated the internet by nearly half a century, I believe that Professor Feynman's closing remarks in this speech can be taken nearly word for word with respect to SOPA, and perhaps the internet's future as a whole.

We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on. It is our responsibility to leave the people of the future a free hand. In the impetuous youth of humanity, we can make grave errors that can stunt our growth for a long time. This we will do if we say we have the answers now, so young and ignorant as we are. If we suppress all discussion, all criticism, proclaiming "This is the answer, my friends; man is saved!" we will doom humanity for a long time to the chains of authority, confined to the limits of our present imagination.[1] It has been done so many times before.

It is our responsibility as scientists, knowing that the great progress which comes from a satisfactory philosophy of ignorance, the great progress which is the fruit of freedom of thought, to proclaim the value of this freedom; to teach how doubt is not to be feared but welcomed and discussed; and to demand this freedom as our duty to all coming generations.

Richard Feynman
from "The Value of Science" in "What Do You Care What Other People Think?"

In these past few months, similar words have been spoken by several experts of our time regarding SOPA. But at times, the person who uttered the words and when the words were uttered can be equally as meaningful as the words themselves.

It has been over 50 years since Professor Feynman uttered the same words that our contemporaries are uttering today, once again to protect the future of scientific and technological progress.

Have we as a society not made any techno-philosophical progress in the last half century? Have we as a society failed to ensure that the decision makers be educated on technology, the most signfiicant driver of progress over the same half century? Despite our sorry state of affairs, can disaster be averted again?

One can hope.