But what happens when the interests of technology giants and civil society clash?
In designing automated systems, engineers and programmers also tend to put the interests of technology ahead of the interests of people.
As my discussion with Goldstein made clear, the administration is committed to protecting the contractual and proprietary interests of technology venders.
"We knew from the start we can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people," Mr. Krikorian said, referring to the converging interests of technology, communications and media companies in the new mobile universe.
Although it is easy to denounce the digital school (or brick and mortar school) with compelling reasons, we should be wary of outweighing the interests of technology over other social, cultural, and political concerns (or vice versa).
Will they forgo rising dividends in the interests of new technology for the British postal service?
A Fortune 500 C.E.O. recently told me that the Clinton-Gore administration has been much more attuned to the interests of high technology than Presidents Reagan and Bush.
The current efforts by Congress represent "blatant government intervention in the private sector to serve the selfish interests of the technology industries," argued Jack T. Ciesielski, an analyst in Baltimore who specializes in accounting issues.
Ravindra Bhat, of Jardine Fleming, a fund manager, says that it would actually be in the interests of Indian technology companies to start borrowing, since the return they earn on capital employed is far higher than their marginal cost of borrowing.
