Simon Wiesenthal , the great Nazi hunter who helped capture Adolf Eichmann and many other former Nazis, has died at age 96 .
Wiesenthal's life and achievements cannot be adequately summarized here. Moreover, I am no fan of reinventing the wheel, so go here for his biography. The Simon Wiesenthal Center, founded by Wiesenthal in 1977, focuses not only on Nazi-hunting (a dying art, literally), but also on exposing hate groups and reminding the world of this awful chapter in human history in an effort to avoid similar recurrences, as much as is possible.
Remarkably, Wiesenthal predicted the confluence of evil and technology in the late 1980s, when he wrote that "[h]atred can be nurtured anywhere, idealism can be perverted into sadism anywhere. If hatred and sadism combine with modern technology the inferno could erupt anew anywhere." Obviously, recent history has proven his prediction to be accurate. Especially for those of us in or around the technology world (if you are actually reading this blog, you may be way too close), Wiesenthal's statement is a real challenge: how to promote "modern technology" while being aware of -- and guarding against -- the very real danger which he identified. I have no quick answers to this question, but I intend to examine this issue as my fellowship at CIS progresses. Any comments or thoughts are appreciated.