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Gore then, is Isabella?
From: David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1993 05:39:31 -0400
To: farber () central cis upenn edu Subject: Gore then, is Isabella? From: bill.shefski () pics com (Bill Shefski) Date: Tue, 26 Oct 93 20:03:00 -0500 Dave, I came across a recent issue of a periodical called _Computer Reviews_ and just had to write. The cover carries a quote from a 1993 article you wrote called "Cyberspace, the Constitution, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation." I just want to go on record that I haven't read the article, I don't know when it was written, and I can attest that you haven't seen Chapter 1 of my forthcoming _Free Electronic Networks_, where I've fashioned a quite similar metaphor. Here's yours: "Those entering Cyberspace encounter new forms in a new terrain just as earlier explorers of the New World, the American West, and Outer Space did before them. Sailing ships, prairie schooners, rocket ships, and the new technology transported these voyagers into different frontiers, but they all faced a similar problem. Upon arrival, they found that civility, ethical practices, individual rights, and the law had been left behind." Very nice. I both wish I _had_ seen it before I wrote mine back in... oh, early May, I believe -- and am glad I didn't. Here's mine: "The exploration of the globe centuries ago was accomplished by only a handful of people, a few hundred maybe. The exploration of space around Earth and the probing of the Solar System involves a few thousand, perhaps, and you may never get any nearer than watching the launches on television. "The exploration of Cyberspace...will be accomplished by millions, and will eventually be permanently colonized by people from all over Planet Earth. There is no indigenous population to supplant, unless you count those computer trailblazers...who staked the ground, and who will look on, a bit dismayed, as the cybernetic landrush gets underway in earnest." Different aspects (I get into the lawlessness in other sections) but very similar, and mindful of that passage from R. Lucky's _Silicon Dreams_ on the subject of *non-cybernetic* networking (among colleagues in a field, and which I also quote in Chapter 1 on the point of technology origination disputes.): "Networking plays a dominant role in many human endeavors. Scientists know that very few discoveries and inventions are made of whole cloth. The time becomes 'ripe' for a given invention, it is 'in the air,' so to speak. In fact, the necessary knowledge is assembling itself in the network, ready to leap out at the first person with sufficient sensitivity to recognize that it is there, already manufactured by a process much bigger than any of us alone." Maybe we were both similarly *leapt* on. I guess it shows that a lot of people are thinking about the same sort of things these days. A shame that, in the end, it will all be controlled by artless cretins from Virtual Hollywood, and fiber-optics will become another, more modern, method of spoon-feeding inanity to the masses. It's the only way they'll make back their money. O well. How's Aurora going? By the way, the journal that published your article was called _Educator Tech_ or something. Do they have an e-address maybe? Thanks. Bill * RM 1.2 * Eval Day 25 * Space, the penultimate frontier... ---- +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Pics OnLine MultiUser System 609/753-2540 HST 609/753-2605 (V32bis) | | Massive File Collection - Over 45,000 Files OnLine - 250 Newsgroups | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
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- Gore then, is Isabella? David Farber (Oct 29)