I received an email yesterday from the publisher of the Shelly Palmer blog pointing out a post entitled Senator Ted “Tubes” Stevens Indictment is Appropriate Metaphor for U.S. Communication Power Shift .  It uses Senator Ted “Tubes” Steven’s famous remarks to focus on the question of how tech savvy our political leaders are.  As the post points out, its scary that “Tubes” is the Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and a member of the Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Innovation. 

The post states:

Taken together, I started to wonder how would our current presidential candidates describe the Internet and its associated technology? Do they have a firm grasp on the issues surrounding our telecommunications future? Do they know what the technical limitations of the medium are? Is either candidate ready to lead us past the information age into the age of cloud computing, reduction mapping and explosive data?

The context of the post is the US presidential election – but its something we in Canada and indeed every country should ask ourselves.  To take it one step farther, we should ask if in addition to the technical issues, our elected officials understand the related social issues, and the expectations and understanding of a younger generation that has grown up knowing nothing but the Internet and the tools and opportunities it brings.

While Stevens’ “Tubes” remarks refers to pipes, the equivalent electronic metaphor might be vacuum tube politicians in a microchip age.

For example, there are many things in recent Canadian copyright bills that suggest the answer to those questions is no – and that no seems to be accross party lines.

Its all kind of scary if you ask me.