IP: 2 items Re: An interesting viewpoint ..on the net and peronal interactions (was on Hellmouth)

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 11:54:46 -0400
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> From: "Richard J. Solomon" <rsolomon () dsl cis upenn edu>
>
>
> He ought to read Harold Innis who identified all these issues before we had
> computer networks, & tv for that matter. It's the difference between oral
> communications and written (the Greeks vs. the Romans), and the difference
> between a culture that is dependent on time & aural perceptions (Greek) vs.
> one dependent on space and visual perceptions (Roman). Today we have
> crushed both time AND space. Innis would not be amazed, nor would McLuhan,
> his student. Just horrified.
>
> Richard

Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 15:59:29 +0000 
From: "Robert J. Berger" <rberger () ibd com> 


I agree that "Perhaps more of us, as techologists, need to wonder about such things"
But I don't think that Video and Voice will neccessarilly make things better. (Think interactive Doom / Quake with 
video avatars). But I also believe that you are being too hard on yourself, technology and netnews.
I believe that there has been much more positive transformation than negative due to the increased communications that 
is delivered by the net. The negatives get blown out of proporation by the horror of things like Littleton, but we 
don't get to see as clearly all the little positives that add up to a social transformation until its done and obvious.
There is a whole new level of one to one, one to many and many to many communication going on because of the net. Some 
good some bad, some noise. But its communication at depths and volumes unheard of in the past. I think its making the 
collective a bit smarter and more self aware. One macro effect is that its getting harder to bullshit the whole 
population. 
Young people are using this medium at rates that we first generation computer folks can't even concieve (doing email, 
IRC chat, ICQ pings, web surfing, game playing and doing their home work simultaneously!). It will make them different. 
Unfortunately, some will go bad and that bad will also be amplified. But it is my contention is that the sum of the 
effect will be a tremendous leap forward in civilization due to increased interpersonal communication. 

-- 
Robert J. Berger - Internet Bandwidth Development 
14510 Big Basin Way #253 Saratoga, CA 95070 
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Email: rberger () ibd com http://www.ibd.com