From JOHN MALINS
May I congratulate you and your contributor Robert Matthews for so bravely
(in the circumstances) giving us ‘The chip with a sting in its tale’ (13
July) the story of how a small company, Charter Technologies, went into
liquidation after it tried to sue the Ministry of Defence over a supposedly
‘perfect’ chip the MoD had contracted Charter to develop software for).
Early in 1990 I was commissioned by Charter Technologies to study and
report back on their Viper press file and certain proof reports curiously
inconsistent with official descriptions of the device – descriptions Charter,
as its licensed commercial promoters, were required to disseminate.
Charter’s dilemma, which they saw as much moral as scientific, had led
them to seek my layman’s view as an aid to arriving at an unbiased assessment
of their totally unexpected predicament.
Social psychology has asserted the autonomous nature of organisations.
It is said that they think: that they exert their independent wills and
dominate the individuals composing them. In difficulties, they can bring
into operation various defence mechanisms including suppression and even
extermination – a seemingly bizarre notion that the machinations of an amazing
ministry have made for me quite credible.
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John Malins Malvern Worcestershire
