On #HolocaustRemembranceDay I've remembered how IBM used machines to enable genocide.
axbom.blog/digital-compas…
The man on the left in this picture is Adolf Hitler. The man sitting on Hitler’s left side is Thomas J. Watson, leader of IBM during the years 1914 to 1956.
Starting in in 1933, IBM’s exclusive punch card technology was used to categorize and streamline Hitler’s plans. We now know that the punch cards, machines, training and servicing were all controlled from IBM’s headquarters in New York and later through subsidiaries in Germany.
In 2012, documents revealed codes of the concentration camps and numbers used to codify people. Number 3 for Homosexual, 8 for Jew, 9 for Anti-social, and number 12 for ‘gypsies’. ‘Special treatment’ was the euphemism for gas chamber. Other codes specified the destined camp.
IBM’s artificial intelligence platform today bears Watson’s name and their 2019 campaign proudly proclaims that you now can have “Watson anywhere“. In light of how Watson was a key player in profiting from the Holocaust… it’s beyond tone-deaf.
IBM’s defense when approached with all this knowledge builds on the premise “We’re a technology company, not historians” Note that we are living in times when “We are just a technology company” is a valid rationalization for automated human destruction. jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ibm-and-quot-d…
Also wanted to bring attention to some quotes attributed to this successful businessman. When reading some of them, think about who his customer was.
Read more in @EdwinBlackBook’s IBM and the Holocaust
ibmandtheholocaust.com
You can also start in his article from 2012 on Huffington Post:
huffpost.com/entry/ibm-holo…
My blog post has further references.
