Unsettling Thoughts about Reality, Virtual Reality, and "the Digital Force"

Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology

Home > Unsettling Thoughts about Reality, Virtual Reality, and "the Digital Force"

Current News

Unsettling Thoughts about Reality, Virtual Reality, and "the Digital Force"

8/4/2004

By Terry Calhoun

The speeder is stopped on a crowded street by several combat-hardened stormtroopers who look over the two robots. A stormtrooper questions Luke.

Trooper: How long have you had these droids?

Luke: About three or four seasons.

Obi-Wan: They're for sale if you want them.

Trooper: Let me see your identification.

Luke becomes very nervous as he fumbles to find his ID while Obi-Wan speaks to the stormtrooper in a very controlled voice.

Obi-Wan: You don't need to see his identification.

Trooper: We don't need to see his identification.

Obi-Wan: These are not the droids your looking for.

Trooper: These are not the droids we're looking for.

Obi-Wan: He can go about his business.

Trooper: You can go about your business.

Obi-Wan: (to Luke) Move along.

Trooper: Move along. Move along.

- George Lucas, 1976

It's fun to think of college and university IT staffers as higher education's version of the Jedi Knights, training long and hard in the installation and use of the digital force, and using their skills to fight the evils of spammers, hackers, and identity thieves. Especially those in the employ of the evil empire. (D'es that put attorney general John Ashcroft in the role of Darth Vader and make librarians sort of a specialized group of Jedi?)

Okay, this analogy is quite stretch. But it's an entertaining one. Suspend your disbelief for a moment and think about the parallels in the following recent news items, some of which we've shared in "IT Trends":

Libraries are RFID tagging their entire inventories
Even the essay portions of standardized exams are soon going to be graded by computers
Electronic voting machines are being hastily implemented, even in Florida, and votes are being lost already
Security technology at airports may soon include machines that virtually strip the clothing off passengers
Police can use a mini version of EMP to remotely turn off criminals' cars

In some sense, there's nothing new in all of this. Thieves have been switching labels on pallets or changing bar codes on expensive products, or the equivalent, throughout history. Cheaters always find a way that works, at least for a while. What's truly different is that so much of the fraudulent manipulation now takes place in a milieu that cannot be seen by the human eye. To me, when that happens we're using"the digital force," and I definitely want to remain on the side of the Jedi.

May the (digital) force be with you.

* Episode IV
A NEW HOPE
From the JOURNAL OF THE WHILLS
George Lucas
Revised Fourth Draft
January 15, 1976
LUCASFILM LTD.
http://cache.cow.net/~draith/sw/scripts/SW-ANH_Script

About the author: Terry Calhoun is Director of Communications and Publications for the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP). You can contact him through CT's IT Trends forum by clicking here. View more articles by Terry Calhoun.

Cite this Site

Terry Calhoun, "Unsettling Thoughts about Reality, Virtual Reality, and "the Digital Force"," Campus Technology, 8/4/2004, http://www.campustechnology.com/article.aspx?aid=38431

copy text (above) for proper citation