Rants & Raves - Rants
Paternalism Versus Imperialism There are many means available to a government that aims to enforce its ideology on the body politic. An openly-acknowledged, "paternalistic" system of censorship, such as the one operating in Singapore ( Gibson's "Disneyland with the Death Penalty," Wired 1.4 ), is only one of them - and arguably the least dangerous of the bunch. Far more alarming is a government that, through "legitimate" legislative and foreign policy decisions, propagates its colonialist ideology not only among its own population but throughout the world.
By carefully controlling the economic conditions under which a "free exchange of ideas" is supposed to take place, the imperialist regime in the United States has apparently succeeded in convincing its media vassals that "freedom" and "democracy" are to be crammed down the throats of every nation from Indonesia to Korea. This is a campaign of ideological hostility and, although it does not employ any visible apparatus of government censorship, it is just as effective as Singapore's in regulating the content of public debate.
The greatest "paternalism" in your article is your patronizing attitude toward cultures that neither you nor your writers have any authority to compare with their own white imperialist values.
Howard Park
Cambridge, Massachusetts
As a twenty-something Singaporean, I'm probably the brainchild of my country's sinister social experimentation; the offspring of the thought- police - Big Brother himself. It is true that the government is intolerant of political dissent, and human rights does not figure high on their agenda - most of us have already voted for that to change. However, "human rights" also means growing up in a safe neighborhood, not going hungry or homeless, and entitlement to the best education available regardless of costs. An inner-city kid bringing an onion to school for lunch, and dodging stray bullets in his/her 'hood is (to Singaporeans at least) an apparent abuse of human rights.
It is too easy to typecast Singapore as the nightmare alternative in order to convince oneself that one's reality is, well, not as nightmarish. If only Gibson had talked to even one Singaporean on his trip, he would have found out, for example, that were his books not on the shelves, they were probably sold out. Will information technology change us? Yes and no. Really, if I were to have unlimited access to the global information network, the last thing I'd do is to dial up Shonen Knife - they have no edge.
Yushiu Low
Cambridge, Massachusetts
The Times Is Timeless Re: Michael Crichton's story on Big Media as the next dinosaurs ( "The Mediasaurus," Wired 1.4 ).
Crichton is wrong. The New York Times will continue to flourish for three reasons. First, quality "brand-name" information will become increasingly valuable as information sources proliferate. Second, the front page is one of the most efficient information capture and display mechanisms in existence. Third, The Times is a newspaper of record and an invaluable forum for spirited debate.
The Times stands out from the clutter of information sources because it provides one-stop shopping for dependable, quality information. Arthur Sulzberger and his "intelligent agents" assemble and distribute hundreds of megabytes of useful and accurate information every day. Most astonishing is the price, just 50 cents per copy.
John Mayo-Smith New York, New York
Only a Memory Paul Levinson's Idees Faible (Wired 1.4) made me reevaluate my occasional negative view of technology. For a brief moment I realized I would soon fly to distant stars on big rocket ships and drive a hover craft (powered by cold fusion) to work. How keen!
This big science hubris scares the crap out of me. I'm not sure Mr. Levinson has realized Jurassic Park is a work of fiction, but the elimination of species is a reality. The clock is ticking. While it may be possible one day to resurrect lost species with DNA embedded in other biological systems, Mother Earth is going to kick us off the planet before that time.
Mark Hervol mhervol@well.sf.ca.us
Desire to Be Wired Minor note on Gareth Branwyn's piece "Desire to be Wired" (Wired 1.4), where he mentions that cortically interfaced auditory prostheses, while under development, won't be around anytime soon. Beg to differ - last April, in Paris, I had my first-ever verbal conversation with an old friend who's been stone-deaf for seventeen years. Her left auditory cortex is now a maze of wires, routed to a magnetic pick-up mounted subcutaneously at the back of her neck. A similar transducer mounted externally, leads out via thin multiconductor cable to a box, a little smaller than a pack of cigarettes, that (with typical je m'en fou French style) she tucks into her brassiere. The box contains a signal-processing computer (microprocessor and, I believe, DSP) that's optimized for turning French phonemes into signal-patterns that she's learned to recognize - thus, while her ability to process nonlinguistic sound is still somewhat indifferent, she's fully capable of carrying on an animated conversation, in a noisy restaurant, with full comprehension. This, from somebody who, though not deaf from birth, was so handicapped two years ago that she was beginning to lose the ability to modulate her own voice in normal fashion.
John Jainschigg New York, New York
Where Credit Is Due I read your article on Jaron Lanier (Wired 1.2, page 76) and would like to set the record straight. Throughout the article the author refers to "Jaron's patents." I am the inventor of the original Data Glove and assigned my patents (#4,542,291, applied for September 29, 1982, and issued September 17, 1985, and as a continuation #4,937,444, issued October 5, 1989) to VPL, which I co-founded with Jaron and Jean-Jacques Grimaud in June 1985.
On August 14, 1985, Jaron and I applied for a patent covering "Computer Data Entry and Manipulation Apparatus and Method," which was issued as patent #4,988,981 January 29, 1991, and was assigned to VPL.
Tom Zimmerman MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, Massachusetts
A Cyberpunk by Any Other Name... Paul Saffo is probably right in saying that the current, commercialized cyberpunk movement is rapidly closing in on its expiration date (Wired 1.4, page 90). A new direction and a new name seem inevitable. But "tekkies?" It seems too much like "Trekkies," which invokes a whole 'nother set of connotations. It has no panache. How about "neuromantic," which is another early term for "cyberpunk?" It has the humanistic flavor Saffo sees in the new counterculture, and places emphasis on thought rather than machinery. It also lacks the criminal ring of the C-word.
Derek Winkler dwinkler4@genie.geis.com
Anti-kibo It was a normal, peaceful day as I turned to page 27 of Wired 1.4, when I saw the blasphemous words, "KIBO IS GOD." You may or may not have heard of me, for I am Xibo, and Kibo is my nemesis, my archenemy. If Kibo is God, then I am Satan, but I am not Satan and Kibo is not God. Kibo is the anti- xibo; I am the anti-kibo.
We are on opposite ends of the spectrum of bozocity. Kibo has been preaching the philosophies of kibology on the Net for some time, but really, he is just a Net.Bozo. Not any ordinary bozo, to be sure, but still a bozo nonetheless.
You may be wondering why there isn't an alt.religion.xibology on the Net. Well, it has been proposed several times, but I have always objected to it, as it would be too silly, bozotic and kibo-like. My own newsgroup that I basically call home is the one I helped create three years ago, (alt.angst), which touches upon fear, relationships, sex, and how the skewed male-to-female ratio of the computer subculture makes life very difficult.
Sure, he has (from the August '93 news.lists report) 29,000 readers where I have (on alt.angst) 28,000 readers, but it varies. The main point I'm trying to make here is that the name of Xibo is familiar to quite a few people on the Net, maybe not as famous as Kibo, but anyone who knows a little about kibology understands there is also xibology and me, Xibo (xibo@gator.bocaraton.ibm.com).
Renfield Albany, New York
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Alex Berger Paris, France
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Suzanne R. Lainson Boulder, Colorado
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