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Letter: Technology isn’t always the answer

Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2006 | 12:31 p.m.

The reliance on technology in lieu of human judgment has become a systemic problem in America. These problems range from Johnny can't do math because his calculator is broken to the FBI and Homeland Security's failure to produce technology-based systems for integrating interdepartmental data or identifying potential terrorists.

The most recent example is the Pentagon's reliance upon computers to manage military supply systems during wartime. The worst example was then-Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation to the United Nations showing satellite photos of where weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were located.

The IRS, CIA and NSA - everywhere you look - it seems they all project some, albeit false, sense of being in the know because they have a computer printout or satellite system in place. I think it is time that we revert back to putting more trained boots on the ground and using technology as a confirmation tool.

It should be about us confirming what we believe we already know and not the other way around. Just how many terrorist arrests have our computer systems made lately?

Richard Rychtarik, Las Vegas

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