电脑的不安全性Computers Are Insecure
电脑能够储存、检索和传送大量的信息，其速度之快是前所未有的。这固然很好，但这却严重关系到资料的安全性和个人隐私，因为电脑本质上是不安全的。最近美国、德国、英国的黑客和数据窃贼活动已表明即使是闯入最复杂的金融和军事系统也还是易如反掌。新兴起的高科技罪犯布下的骗局正日益增多，这些骗局包括做手脚预定机票到重编移动电话中的芯片程序等。15. Computers enable enormous quantities of information to be stored, retrieved, and transmitted at great speed on a scale not possible before. This is all very well, but it has serious implications for data security and personal privacy because computers are inherently insecure. The recent activities of hackers and data thieves in the United States, Germany, and Britain have shown how all-too-easy it still is to break into even the most-sophisticated financial and military systems. The list of scams perpetrated by the new breed of hi-tech criminals, ranging from fraud in airline-ticket reservations to the reprogramming of the chips inside mobile phones, is growing daily.
电脑的失控性Computers Are Unmanageable
电脑系统常常是复杂得令人难以置信。实际上，其复杂性就连它们的创造者也不明白（尽管很少有人愿意承认这一点）。这常常使它们完全失控。这种失控的复杂性会造成大量的故障或惊人的预算失控。比如杰弗利·罗士费德在《商业周刊》（1988年11月7日和1989年
4 月3日）中报导说，1988年美国银行在花了5年时间和6千万美元试图让一个价值2千万美元的电脑系统运转起来后，不得不放弃。全美保险公司眼睁睁地看着其新系统的费用从8百万美元一直涨到差不多1亿美元，预期的完工期从1987年一直推迟到1993年。而且，这个问题似乎越来越严重。1988年美国仲裁协会受理了190个电脑纠纷，其大多数都和有缺陷的系统有关。要求赔偿的总款目从1984年的仅仅3100万美元涨到2亿美元（见1988年2月7日和1988年6月29日《洛杉机时报》）。16. Computer systems are often incredibly complex - so complex, in fact, that they are not always understood even by their creators (although few are willing to admit it). This often makes them completely unmanageable. Unmanageable complexity can result in massive foul-ups or spectacular budget Week (7 November 1988 and 3 April 1989) reports that Bank of America in 1988 had to abandon a $20-million computer system after spending five years and a further $60 million trying to make it work. Allstate Insurance saw the cost of its new system rise from $8 million to a staggering $100 million and estimated completion was delayed from 1987 to 1993. Moreover, the problem
seems to be getting worse; in 1988 the American Arbitration Association took on 190 computer disputes, most of which involved defective systems. The claims totaled $200 million--up from only $31 million in 1984 (See The Los Angeles Time 7 February 1988 and 29 June 1988).
复杂性也会造成灾难：没有哪部电脑是100％可以得到保障的，因为预料到所有的重要用途实际上是不可能的，如拯救生命，驾驶飞机，管理核电站，进行大笔资金转账，还有控制导弹系统--有时会造成悲剧。例如，1982年到1987年，美国空军先进的黑鹰直升机的五次失事中，大约22位空军士兵死于非命，之后，失事原因追溯到电脑控制的电控飞行系统。至少有两人死于遭受过量的电脑控制的Therac－25 X光射线机发出的辐射，其他致命的电脑故障的例子还有很多（汤姆·富勒斯特和派瑞·莫里森：《电脑道德：电脑警世故事和道德困惑》，MIT出版社，剑桥，马撒诸赛州，1990，68－87）。17. Complexity can also result in disaster: no computer is 100 percent guaranteed because it is virtually impossible to anticipate all sorts of critical applications, such as saving lives, flying air craft, running nuclear power stations, transferring vast sums of money, and controlling missile systems - sometimes with tragic
consequences. For example, between 1982 and 1987, some twenty-two servicemen died in five separate crashes of the United States Air Force\'s sophisticated Blackhawk helicopter before the problem was traced to its computer-based receiving overdoses of radiation emitted by the computerized Therac 25 X-ray machines, and there are many other examples of fatal computer-based foul-ups (Tom Forester and Perry
Morrison, Computer Ethics: Cautionary Tales and Ethical Dilemmas in computing, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1990, pages 68-87).
通常在有些领域电脑故障并不非常危及生命，这些领域包括电话开账，电话交换软件，银行结单，银行柜员机，电子资金转让系统，汽车执照资料库等。尽管电脑常在这些场合备受谴责，然而在大多数情况下，故障的最终原因实际上是人为失误。18. Popular areas for less life-threatening computer malfunctions include telephone billing and telephone switching software, bank statements and bank-teller machines, electronic funds-transfer systems, and motor-vehicle license data bases. Although computers have often taken the %ultimate cause of failure in most cases is, in fact, human error.
对社会来说，每项新技术都会产生新问题--也有新利益--电脑也不例外。但数字化电脑已使
社会特别易受硬件和软件故障的影响。有时工业机器人会发狂，而心脏起搏器和自动车库门开启器会被销售终端机、个人电脑和电视游戏释放出的电磁射线或电子烟雾损坏。自动柜员机、汽油站的加油泵、快餐店终端机会因无法预见的软件错误而崩溃。
19. Every new technology creates new problems - as well as new benefits - for society, and