VOICES OF OUR TIME: JOSEPH D. MCNAMARA

Technology's advancement a boon to personal freedom

>From your perspective, what have been some of the most important
developments of the 20th century, and how will the world be different 100
years from now?

I think the advancement of technology has been simply astonishing. There
have been more technological innovations in the past century than in the
entire previous history of civilization, and, as a result, there is a higher
standard of living and greater personal freedom for many more people in the
world.

Shakespeare said, ``The past is prologue.'' I think the technological
advances of the next century are beyond our imaginations at the moment. I
hope they are used for good, not evil, as sometimes was the case in this
century. The Nazis in Germany, the communist Soviet Union and other
totalitarian governments used technology for evil. The Holocaust and the
Nazi war machine resulted in the deaths of many millions of people, as did
Stalin's police state and the Japanese imperialism that resulted in World
War II.

I think the fortunate thing in history is that the United States prevailed,
but the technological race could have gone the other way. Germany had
developed rockets and jet engines, fortunately too late in the war to have
made the difference they could have.

I think that improved Internet communication in the long run is more likely
to spread human freedom and prosperity, provided governments don't suppress
it.

Joseph D. McNamara, former police chief of San Jose, is a research fellow at
the Hoover Institution and author of five books.