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PROFESSOR: What struck me
immediately on September 11th

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was the fact that--

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at least as far
as we know, there

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were no bombs involved
in these attacks,

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and the energy that caused
all this destruction was

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the energy, as John pointed out
that's concentrated and held

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in the very systems
that we rely on.

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And the terrorists did an
unfortunately successful job

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of turning those systems
in on themselves-- turning

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our systems in on themselves.

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And that's a
striking fact in that

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it points to the
sense, which has always

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been the case, that our
own technologies are

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both potential saviors
and potential tombs

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and potential weapons.

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It's also quite striking the
degree of engineering talent

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that went into this attack.

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At least several
of the attackers

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themselves were engineers.

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I was struck to learn that
Bin Laden himself was trained

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as a civil engineer and
that his family comes out

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of the construction business.

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So it's natural, in a sense,
that he thinks about buildings

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when he would think
about attacks,

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and that's been proven in
the embassy attacks in Africa

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as well.

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I think that's an important
fact for people at MIT

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to contemplate.

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In no way indicts the entire
engineering profession, but one

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of the reasons this
attack is so disturbing

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is that we at a place
like MIT are not

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comfortable with the idea of
cool calculation being turned

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toward these murderous ends.

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It's a similar issue that was
raised during the Holocaust,

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it's a similar issue that was
raised during the Vietnam War

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with the overuse of systems
analysis in that context.

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That very fact, in a sense,
puts a paradox into the way

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that we think about technology.

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MIT, by its own
definition in a way,

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is a place that seeks to
improve science and technology

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for the betterment of humankind.

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In general, disasters
like this blow a hole

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in our technological world.

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In this case, literally.

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The systems that we
rely on every day,

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not just airliners
and buildings,

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are revealed in ways that we
don't see them ordinarily.

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And I can think of
many of them, I'll

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list a few here, that
are ordinarily just

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under our public radar screen.

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Of course, there
are people on campus

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who think about these
systems all the time.

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So as we mentioned, air
traffic, aircraft themselves,

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the air traffic control
system, communication systems,

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cryptography.

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The security systems
around the airport.

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General information,
systems use of the internet,

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world wide web for planning.

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The emergency response system in
New York City and in Washington

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in response to the
Pentagon attack.

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Of course, cell phones.

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Remarkable closing of the
loop on the cell phones

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aboard one of the airliners, and
there's a distinct possibility

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that the presence of either
cell phones or seat back phones

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actually thwarted that effort.

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And strikingly,
the language that's

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used on virtually all sides
of the current discourse

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has to do with
systems and networks.

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I would remind you that the
very language that people

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use to talk about the terrorists
and Al Qaeda organizations

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is as networks with
cells, connections, nodes,

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investigation systems,
law enforcement systems,

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again, using the various
information and other types

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of systems.

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Security systems to
track the hijackers.

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Some of these things
we praise, obviously.

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Others of them are not
as comforting for us,

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but truly, the way that
this event opens up

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what Manuel Castells' called
"The network society" is very

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revealing, and one of the
unpleasant facts about it

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is that we are so dependent on
these technological systems,

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and yet, by their very nature,
they're flexible and open.

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This is one of the reasons
they're so successful.

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You can hop on an aircraft
with an hour's worth of time

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and be across the coast.

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Ditto for other
types of systems,

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and yet, their very
flexibility and openness

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is partly what makes
them vulnerable.

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And in some sense,
one of the prices

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we will always live with
for our flexible, open,

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large-scale systems,
which we use

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every day is the fact that these
shadow or parasite systems,

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terrorist systems,
drug dealing systems

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other types of nefarious systems
will live on their underbelly,

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and in some way, we have
to come to terms with that.

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Of course, the
flexibility in this case

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was a great advantage.

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I think the flexibility
of the systems--

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the urban system in New York
City-- is truly astonishing.

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Financial networks,
electric power networks.

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One day, I would love to do just
a study of the way they rewired

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the entire Southern Manhattan
electric grid in order to get

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the stock market up to speed.

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But these are the same kinds of
concerns that make the Al Qaeda

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network difficult to target
and difficult to remove,

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although there are some
interesting ideas in the press

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being thrown around
about how you deal

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with those kinds of networks.

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One more idea to close
with is also the issue

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of symbolism in this story.

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What's striking about-- as
someone who thinks about

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symbolic technologies and the
symbolic power of technology is

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the way that these two
technologies at least,

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if not others, that we think
of as symbolic of American

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or general technological life
that would be the aircraft,

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which is--

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for Americans, has often
been a symbol of freedom,

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a symbol of speed, a symbol of
release from worldly concerns

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was, again, turned in on itself.

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Also, aircraft being one
of America's most proud

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industrial products,
Boeing aircraft.

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And ditto the World
Trade Centers, of course,

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standing for capitalism,
American capitalism,

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even global financial networks,
and part of the reason

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that these attacks
are so devastating

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to the American
culture is because

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of that symbolic dimension.

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And yet, at the same
time, there is no sense

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that this is a purely
symbolic attack.

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These were very real
technologies, real machines,

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real people died.

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Real families lost
family members,

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and it points to the fact
that what we consider symbolic

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and what we consider
technological are increasingly

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difficult to disentangle,
and that there always

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is a material element to what
we choose to present as symbolic

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of our culture and that material
element has two sides to it.