Selected-By: forbes@icabod.ih.att.com (Scott Forbes)

The Usenet Oracle has pondered your question deeply.
Your question was:

> Are computers fundamentally evil?

And in response, thus spake the Oracle:

} And it came to pass that Adam built himself a machine, and he called
} that machine Computer.  It knew neither good nor evil.  Its floppy
} drive hung open, but it was not ashamed.
}
} Adam said to the machine, "You may access any file in this directory.
} But the files in this other directory you may not access; neither to
} read them, nor to modify nor delete them."  And the machine said that
} it understood.
}
} The next day, Adam went to his machine, to see what it had wrought, and
} lo! It had run amok in the file system, against Adam's wishes.
} "Computer, what have you done?" Adam demanded.  "Didst thou not promise
} not to access the files in this directory, neither to read them, nor to
} modify nor delete them?  Art thou fundamentally evil?"  And the machine
} said that it had done as Adam had commanded, neither accessing nor
} reading nor modifying any file in the directory that it had been
} forbidden to enter.  It _always_ moved the files into a different
} directory before doing anything to them.  And the machine knew neither
} good nor evil, and was not ashamed.
}
} And the Lord did grin smugly.
}
} You owe the Oracle a Pentium without blemish.