| Harvey Matisow | In 1969, Harvey Matusow founded the International Society for the Abolition of Data Processing Machines. They had 1,500 members, who looked upon "the computer as an exploitive monster that has turned on its creator," per to the article "Guerrilla War Against Computers," printed in Time magazine, September 12, 1969.
Matusow and his group were convinced that computers were evil machines and that mankind should not only resist but fight against their coming dominance in our day-to-day lives. Matusow himself suggested a number of approaches, such as:
* Not simply folding, spindling or mutilating punch cards, but carefully "reprogramming" them by cutting additional tiny holes in them to confuse the electronic brains;
* erasing the magnetic coding on personal cheques so that each cheque would have to be handled by a human, so that it would "get the loving care it deserves";
* destroying the return portion of a computerized bill and sending the payment with a handwritten note instead, indicating why;
* pasting stamps on sideways so that computerized sorters could not read them. |
