The Dead Sea Scrolls and Information Paranoia

jfruhlinger writes "Today Google and the Israel Museum have made the famed Dead Sea Scrolls available for online viewing. This is a great step forward for scholars and those curious about the oldest known copies of many biblical texts. But why has it taken nearly 50 years for the contents of this material to be made fully public? Blogger Kevin Fogarty thinks the saga of the scrolls since their discovery — along with the history of religious texts in general — is a good example of how people seek to gain power by hoarding information. In that regard, it holds some important lessons for the many modern debates about information security and control."

The Google conspiracy

[symbolset]

Obviously to track and identify those with an interest in this material so they can sell that information, complete with maps and street view, to ancient aliens intent on probing and implanting their mind control chips. Don't be evil! What a joke.

Re:The Google conspiracy

[Anonymous Coward]

Or hey why didnt they scan them 50 years ago and let everyone see it online.

oh wait...

Re:The Google conspiracy

[SwedishChef]

That reminds me of my son who was in high school when I demonstrated how to use a slide rule and explained how engineers all had them. He asked me why they didn't just use a calculator. LOL

Legal delays

[oldfogie]

They had to wait for the copyrights to expire...

Font?

[Sponge Bath]

I don't know what font they used to print those scrolls, but it's so distorted it doesn't even look like English.

In Other News

[pcolaman]

In other news, Bethesda sues the Jews for use of the word Scrolls in the Dead Sea Scrolls, while the Jews cite prior art and challenge Bethesda to a match of Quake 3 to determine who gets to use the term.

Re:The Google conspiracy

[GrumpySteen]

And that guy grew up to be the programmer who write the time estimation code for Windows' copy function.