Testimony on Scientific and Technical Assessment and Advice for the U.S. Congress

You can master many complex issues by filling a table like this one with people who have competing interests, and watching them argue different sides of the issue. Unfortunately, this approach breaks down when the topic is highly technical. For example, in the current debate on “network neutrality” in the Internet, I’ve seen advocates from all sides advance their agendas by giving misleading simplifications of how the Internet actually works and of what “neutrality” might mean. From that, I don’t see how any non-expert could tell what the issue is about, much less what to do about it. I could not separate substance from rhetoric until I did my own assessment, rooted in the technology of the Internet.