2024-06-05
Yes, digital technology is the very foundation of our modern society, for better or worse. It's a tool that can be used, indeed really has to be used these days, and whether for good or evil is down to the motivation of the user.
The BCS indeed has been at the forefront of regulating for the digital age, being the power behind the original Data Protection Act (whatever you may think of that fairly cumbersome package).
So it's off to the races elections today with its proposals for the next government's policies on regulation of, and education about, the Great British Digital space in all its forms.
Yes it has all the essential nods toward matters DEI which some may feel unnecessary, but my only caveat would be that DEI must never come at the expense of excellence, nor at the expense of freedom for everyone in all its lawful forms. Why? because the BCS is a society primarily about excellence in computing in all its diverse aspects, so this must be its primary motivating non-negotiable factor.
Unhappily they don't actually spell this out, which some may worry could leave the door ajar for sundry headstrong activists to pursue tangential agendas that may become fashionable from time to time.
Whilst yet others might feel that a learned society such as the BCS shouldn't presume to tell politicians what to do (and indeed one might think that "transforming society" is none of its business), yet it seems inevitable that digital tech will continue its inexorable transformation of society anyway and attempts to stop such transformation will fail, so best try to guide it.
Of course this opens up an enormous can of worms, since guidance can lead to unnecessary and unwelcome compulsion in the wrong hands, so I see this as an opportunity to interest a new generation of politicians alongside the public in the issues that do and will confront us all in this ever more automated age.
I don't see that the BCS has crossed any line here. What needs to be done needs to be done, so any insight that they can share with us should be welcomed, and we the Great British public should pay attention lest our ever incompetent politicians drive the whole shooting match irretrievably into the legal / regulatory weeds.
T'was ever thus ...
