Today was Memorial Day in the United States, a day that now primarily
emphasizes the heroism of the American soldiers during World War II. In that
war, 405,399 American military were killed, a terrible number.

However, there are other, far worse numbers worth considering as well. An
estimated 100 million men, women and children died during the 2,139 days of
World War II, if the counting is to begin on September 1, 1939, the date of
Hilter's invasion of Poland, and to end on September 2, 1945, with the
Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri. When those two
numbers are divided into one another, the result is that 45,599 people were
methodically killed day after day, for every day of the war, for six years
running.

There's never been another period in human history that could match this
level of murderous barbarity, although we came close in the 1960's and
1970's, a time when we gave serious thought to killing five billion people in
a matter of days.

It's possible to argue with some real force of logic that technology frees us
to exploit the deepest evils of our nature and because of that, we are far
less civilized than we believe ourselves to be. Nonetheless, I remain an
optimist, and I deeply believe that what we are doing now with these
computers is making us all more human and humane, and in the consequence,
making us all safer.

Wirt Atmar

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