computer geeks and politics

Slate is running an article called Why Computer Geeks Should give Up on Politics. It covers a variety of subjects, including Digital Rights Management, government sanctioned computer intrusion to "protect" copyrights, the GeekPAC, blogging politicians, and what Slate calls the highest stakes issue of all -- the Total Information Awareness (TIA) research project. DARPA, which is in charge of the TIA project, may have been instrumental in starting the internet. But the net's success so far is because it's something that people wanted, often despite the the protests of bureacracy. People may not be quite as euthusiastic about supporting the TIA.

[November 27, 2002 -- Contrast that article to Declan McCullagh's Is it time for a GeekPAC?.]