The problem with all this is that it ignores the reason that governments were created:
Governments exist to protect the property (material or otherwise) of the governed.
In order to do this, goverments have a monopoly on force. Think about it: Can your neighbor decide to levy a tax on you? Sure. Can he throw you in jail if you don't pay? Nope. Only a government can. If some foreign army occupies your house, can you make your neighbors throw them out? Not directly, but your goverment, made up of you and your neighbors, can!
The problem with governments is that the power of government is corrupting. People always want government to do things that it can not do without violating it's charter of protecting all of the governed.
A few comments before I get flamed.
Property, of course, does include a wide range of things. Intellectual property is protected by copyrights and patents, your person is protected by laws against murder and assault.
No, I don't hate your favorite government program, but think about it: Is it fair to use force to take my property (my money) to give you something? Not protect your property (that is the purpose of government - we have to fund the courts, the police, & the military) but to buy you a (choose any or all) a water treatment plant, baby food, prescription drugs, sports arenas?
As Heinlein pointed out in Friday, it is the duty of all citizens in this day and age to confuse computers. If you can't avoid a tax, pay too much. Transpose digits. Anything to make information mining difficult.
I think that this was originally in one of John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee novels...
It's unlikely that there's a remote 'stop burn' option for a coal-burning power plant, for instance.
Many modern control systems *DO* have a remote access capability. This allows engineers to log in remotely to troubleshoot problems.
Some of these control systems are based on Unix variants such as Solaris. Unfortunately, they are often administered by people that are completely unfamiliar with Unix and network security. At least one vendor that I know of asks that you do NOT change the root password on their system so that their support people can dial in and run system tests occasionally as part of their service contract!
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Governments exist to protect the property (material or otherwise) of the governed.
In order to do this, goverments have a monopoly on force. Think about it: Can your neighbor decide to levy a tax on you? Sure. Can he throw you in jail if you don't pay? Nope. Only a government can. If some foreign army occupies your house, can you make your neighbors throw them out? Not directly, but your goverment, made up of you and your neighbors, can!
The problem with governments is that the power of government is corrupting. People always want government to do things that it can not do without violating it's charter of protecting all of the governed.
A few comments before I get flamed.
Property, of course, does include a wide range of things. Intellectual property is protected by copyrights and patents, your person is protected by laws against murder and assault.
No, I don't hate your favorite government program, but think about it: Is it fair to use force to take my property (my money) to give you something? Not protect your property (that is the purpose of government - we have to fund the courts, the police, & the military) but to buy you a (choose any or all) a water treatment plant, baby food, prescription drugs, sports arenas?
As Heinlein pointed out in Friday, it is the duty of all citizens in this day and age to confuse computers. If you can't avoid a tax, pay too much. Transpose digits. Anything to make information mining difficult.
I think that this was originally in one of John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee novels...
Many modern control systems *DO* have a remote access capability. This allows engineers to log in remotely to troubleshoot problems.
Some of these control systems are based on Unix variants such as Solaris. Unfortunately, they are often administered by people that are completely unfamiliar with Unix and network security. At least one vendor that I know of asks that you do NOT change the root password on their system so that their support people can dial in and run system tests occasionally as part of their service contract!