All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
Rants & Raves - Rants and Raves
Talking (Severed) Heads Immortality? ("Meet the Extropians," Wired 2.10, page 102.) Even if we should conquer aging and most of the more deadly diseases and live to be 150 years old, it has been evinced elsewhere that statistics dictate that some sort of catastrophe, like, say, a safe falling on your head, will take you out of the Methuselah sweepstakes.
Cloning? No matter how good, a copy is still a copy. Assuming you could have a perfect double ready to take your place as soon as you kissed the dirt, I can't see anyone but the most egomaniacal wanting to perpetuate themselves in this manner.
Extropians are just trying to make sure no one else gets their money when they die. Scott Faulkner scottfau@microsoft.com
Having just finished Ed Regis's article on the Extropians, I feel compelled to toss in my two cents. The implication that "biology is under human control" is undercut by the reality that AIDS, cancer, and a variety of other illnesses still claim the lives of millions yearly. Likewise, now that human psychology has been chemically sussed out, I suppose we can turn all those obsolete mental institutions into condos.
Don't get me wrong - I think that their positive stance is, in many ways, refreshing in these pessimistic and cynical times. However, the implication that they can defy mortality and become "more than human" reeks of hubris. With a total membership of 300, they should keep in mind that their entire organization is just one hurricane away from complete annihilation. Or do they now have some way of controlling the weather? Christopher Libertino New York
These kids represent the intellectually and economically privileged of today's middle class, much like their parents did in their own generation as leaders of the '60s counterculture. (We can ignore the élite; they have lived in a world of their own creation all along.) The Extropians' optimism teeters on the edge of "feel good" denial. The larger their movement becomes, the greater the danger that a majority of them will lose contact with the foundations of their philosophy - just as some post-Nietzsche groupies misinterpreted Nietzsche's ideas, believing he advocated a separate Übermensch that would rule the mediocre masses, not spur the bulk of humanity in self-improvement.
That said, I hope the Extropians can channel their energy into finding real solutions to contemporary problems - and avoid losing their optimism entirely when they encounter real barriers as they grow older. The worst outcome would be if they were to give up the whole game the first time they hit a formidable obstacle. Perhaps they'll become the millennial version of the '70s idealists, who, in a fit of frustrated, post-OPEC burnout, turned into the yuppies of the '80s. Let's not play that record again. Dan Krimm New York
I read about the Extropians with a combined sense of fascination and bewilderment (not to mention a giggle or two). Without a doubt, this planet certainly needs more yea-sayers, and the unbridled optimism of the Extropians is sorely lacking in most spheres these days. Even so, I've got a small bone to pick.
Regarding their Nietzschean leanings, the doctrine of overcoming man, of the "Overman," has nothing to do with immortality. The Overman doesn't want to overcome death, but rather, the stigma of death. Overcoming death is not the way to overcome man, for cheating death is what man has tried to do all along.
Nietzsche did not consider for a moment that one might want to last forever. James MacKenzie jam@exoterica.com
Tiny Tiles on the Net Your article on Mosaic ("The (Second Phase of the) Revolution Has Begun," Wired 2.10, page 116) concentrated a great deal on whether Mosiac Communications Corporation was going to try to become the Mosaic Microsoft by staying far enough ahead of everyone in the next couple of years to control the de facto standard. I can't evaluate whether they truly want to do this; regardless, your article never really discussed how difficult this would be.
Certain features can be added to the Mosaic client in isolation for user customization and support for additional protocols, but the key issues (new document/protocol standards, encryptions, financial transactions) require that standards be followed by the client software and the server software. Thus, there are two groups of independently minded cusses that MCC would have to bulldoze if it were to set significant monopolistic standards on its own.
In addition, the company would not be acting in a vacuum. CERN and MIT recently created the W3 Organization (http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Organization/Consortium/W3OSignature.html) - a consortium that will push the standard forward in an interoperable way, making it more effective for use by education, government, research, and industry. Bill Seitz seitz@scp.com
In his short piece on using the Internet ("Slip into the Net with Shareware," Wired 2.10, page 124), John Ost says that to use Mosaic, you need a "true" Internet (IP-type) connection. This is not quite true. It is possible to use NCSA Mosaic (not to mention ncftp, telnet, gopher, and IRC) via a standard Unix shell dial-up. All you need is a nifty little program written by Michael O'Reilly (michael@iinet.com.au) called "Term."
The following is taken from Term's README file: "Term is a program to implement a slip-like connection between two Unix machines. It isn't sl/ip. It runs entirely in user mode. It requires no kernel support on either end, and no root access on either end. It is built to run over a modem to connect a non-Internet machine with an Internet machine."
Term is a good alternative for people who cannot afford a SLIP/PPP type link, or simply can't get one. Nikolas Tumbri riviera@werple.apana.org.au
Gary Wolf's article on Mosaic included some information we at the University of Illinois would like to clarify. The first has to do with inaccurate information about our proprietary software. References to "Mosaic" should be properly identified as "NCSA Mosaic."
"NCSA Mosaic" is an Internet browser product that was developed, and continues to be developed, by employees at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois owns the copyright to the software and the trademarks for the product name and the spinning globe logo. Although the university makes licenses for some of our software available to the public at no charge for academic, research, and business uses, it is not in the public domain.
A master license agreement with Spyglass Inc. of Savoy, Illinois, for all future commercial licensing and development was announced on August 24, 1994, by the university. Spyglass has entered into several sublicenses. The University of Illinois has also signed limited commercial license agreements with 10 other companies. All university licensees are listed below in alphabetical order: Amdahl Corporation; Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI); Fujitsu Limited (Japan); Infoseek Corporation; Quadralay Corporation; Quarterdeck Office Systems Inc.; The Santa Cruz Operation Inc.; Spry Inc.; Spyglass Inc.; Sun Microsystems Inc.; and Ubique Ltd. (Israel). Richard C. Alkire Vice Chancellor for Research and Dean of the Graduate College Champaign, Illinois
In his article, Gary Wolf claims that "Prodigy, AOL, and CompuServe are all suddenly obsolete." Should we buy a burial plot for these online services next to the headstones of advertising and the newspaper? Come on, guys. You're starting to sound like the magazine that cried wolf.
Media don't die, they're merely co-opted. Tom Wang mtwang@aol.com
Virtual Ronald Here is my suggestion on how to use the mcdonalds.com domain (if it is still there) ("Billions Registered," Wired 2.10, page 50). How 'bout making it a WWW location for health-food information? Or a location for FDA violations by fast-food restaurants?
Just a university student killing time. Graham Hudson gahudson@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca
Penn and Ink The journalistic marriage between Penn Jillette and Joshua Quittner was made in heaven. The best thing I've read in years. Linda Lampe Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Did you fry Penn yet? ("Buy this magazine or we fry this magician," Wired 2.09, cover.) I didn't buy your magazine. You promised. Terry Dineen DysInformed Inc. dineen@odi.com
I vote that you connect Penn Jillette's nuts to 30,000 volts and fry the sucker. He is one stupid, unfunny asshole. A Faithful Reader
Ownership Changes? Is it me, or were you guys recently bought out by Entertainment Weekly? John Holland holland@netcom.com
Li'l Science Wars Beakman's World? ("Gonzo Science Class," Wired 2.08, page 110.) Beakman's World??!! Come on. Get a clue. Network TV still sucks. Beakman is but a hollow clone of the true champion of science for the 13-and-under set - Bill Nye, The Science Guy.
Nye plays himself - he's not an actor. Nye's show has a frenetic pacing that makes CBS's Beakman look tepid. Nye's show has a cool theme song. And, the big plus: Nye's show is backed by the National Science Foundation. Brian McNett BrianMc@aol.com
Bill Nye, The Science Guy can be seen weekday afternoons on PBS and weekends on local broadcast television. Check your local listings for time and station. - The Editors
Fatuous Fetishes Wired 2.10's Fetish section hypes the Datasonix Pereos ("Info Imp," page 42), a tape drive that can put a copy of a 600 Mbyte disk onto a microcassette in "just six seconds."
Not even the Vulcan mind-meld works that fast.
Some facts for comparison: a typical PC disk transfers at about 1 to 2 Mbytes per second, a decent workstation's SCSI system copies, one way, at 3 to 5 Mbytes per second, and a high-powered, striped RAID system (where data is stored on multiple disks, allowing them to transfer simultaneously) can pump at up to 25 Mbytes per second. None of these can get 600 Mbytes of data to even main memory in six seconds, never mind trying to put it onto a tape whose mechanical design was optimized for the slow bit rate of the human voice. I won't mention how fast you can put 600 Mbytes over a parallel port, but Rip van Winkle would think it a long time. The only way any tape can fulfill this claim is if the disk has no data. Lance Berc berc@src.dec.com
We apologize for the confusion. The transfer rate of the Datasonix Pereos is actually 10 Mbyte per minute, not 100 Mbytes per second. But hey, what's a few orders of magnitude among friends? - The Editors
Not So Fast I read with interest your article on The Apology Line (Wired 2.10, page 32). It could be a very lucrative little business if Mr. A were to add Caller ID to his lines and record the information along with the apology. I nearly called the line before this crossed my mind. George Ray 75360.1635@compuserve.com
You Forgot One Jacques Leslie's article on electronic scholarly journals ("Goodbye, Gutenberg," Wired 2.10, page 68) summarized developments in this field quite well, yet Leslie failed to mention the granddaddy of electronic journals, Postmodern Culture (PMC), published by North Carolina University, Oxford University Press, and the University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities.
Expanding on the e-mail ASCII version of Postmodern Culture, the institute has opened a Web site that is one of the leading examples of scholarly electronic publishing in the humanities. You'll find it at jefferson.village.virginia.edu/.
Click along to the Postmodern Culture home page, and you'll find all the current and back issues of PMC - check out the January '94 article on the indeterminate gender of the classic cartoon character Krazy Kat, complete with annotated panels from the original strip. From the PMC home page, you can also access the "virtual conference center," PMC-MOO. Lillian Hastie Oxford University Press, US lmh@oup-usa.org
Spare Us the Spew Unlike some, I do enjoy a bit of pop-literary "cul-chuh" with my dose of high-tech info-gobbling. However, I really must take exception with the inclusion of Neal Stephenson's "Hack the Spew" (Wired 2.10, page 91). C'mon, guys (and it is guys, isn't it?), is this the depth to which cyberfiction has sunk? - "Are you on the trail of the next unexploited market niche - or just on a nookie hunt?" Am I to understand correctly that the climax of the excerpt is watching some young woman in her underwear jumping on a bed with the same abandon a 3-year-old would aspire to? How truly adult and cutting-edge. And no, the gratuitous reference to the artwork of Ray Troll couldn't carry the story. Give me "Microserfs II" or another "Rage" any day. "Hack the Spew"? I think not. More like Spew the Hack. Darrel Plant DPlant@aol.com
Hidden Math Nicholas Negroponte, in "Sensor Deprived" (Wired 2.10, page 158), argues that something almost magical happens between two people when their eyes meet across a crowded room; that you can tell if someone is making eye contact with you and not just looking over your shoulder at a point 20 feet away, a difference of a "tiny fraction of a degree." Surely, he argues, the human mind is not figuring this through trigonometry, as that would require unthinkable measurement and computation.
My question is this: has Mr. Negroponte ever played baseball? How do I know exactly where to put my hand to catch a flying baseball, of varying speed, along a certain trajectory, etc.? Is that magic too? Nah. I think he's simply not giving enough credit to the human mind. We are, in many ways, walking calculators, and somewhere in our little primal brains, there is a working calculator that understands math better than we do. Bill Everding weverdi@american.edu
Eye contact is the same magic that allows a dog to recognize its master from far away by his or her gait.
There isn't enough resolution to compute eye angle.
A baseball presents a different phenomenon, that of the feedback loop. You do not know where to put your hand, at first. After first doing so approximately, you refine the estimate as the ball continues to come closer.
If I left the impression that humans don't compute well, forgive me. That was not intended at all. We have all spotted people out of the corner of our eyes - in some cases it may have been a person we might not have seen for 10 years or more. Yes, the brain is computing, but, like eye contact, something else is happening beyond math as we know it. - Nicholas Negroponte
Memetic Correction I enjoyed Mike Godwin's article "Meme, Counter-meme" (Wired 2.10, page 85) and his description of the fertile memetic soil of the Net. I was disappointed, however, to find that Godwin did not credit the idea of the meme to its creator, Richard Dawkins.
In his sociobiological book The Selfish Gene, Dawkins produces the idea of the meme as an extra-genetic method of evolution. This book is one that ought to be read by those interested in memetics and the socio-ethical issues arising from it. The reference would have added weight to Godwin's piece - and helped Wired veer away from the techno-dilettante style with which it constantly flirts. Michael Sellers New World Designs sellers@teleport.com
Michael, in my original draft of the essay I credited an essay by Keith Henson in Whole Earth Review. That essay, in turn, credited Dawkins. The reference was removed in the editing process. - Mike Godwin
My Opinion of Your Magazine Two words: information overdose. John Sweeney ( b i n a r y s o u n d ) jds@access.digex.net
The Other Clinton I read with great interest your article on George Clinton ("Hey Man ... Smell My Sample," Wired 2.08, page 74). I am a product manager at Emu Systems in Scotts Valley, California - the leading company in sampling technology for music. We often find ourselves in the position of wanting to encourage sampling in the course of marketing our products while trying to ensure that our users obtain permission for the samples they use. It is very difficult in many cases, especially for small-time musicians and low-budget productions, to obtain this permission. As a result, many musicians simply use the material and figure if they get caught, it will happen because they're making too much money.
George Clinton's open attitude and logical royalty system will no doubt result in larger revenues for him in the long run (provided his grooves do not fall victim to overexposure). His solution should be used as a model by all artists. Matt Ward Matt_Ward@qmmac.emu.com
Reed Reads I was less than pleased with some of the statements included as fact in the opening of my interview ("Read Hundt," Wired 2.10, page 72).
For example, the introduction cites the fact that "Bell Atlantic and Tele-Communications Inc. blamed the rate rollback for the breakup of their multibillion-dollar marriage." Yet later in the interview, author John Heilemann references a Wired interview in which John Malone acknowledges that it wasn't the rate rollback that caused the breakup. The Malone interview has been cited again and again for his joking reference to shots fired at me, but the real ammunition in that piece was Malone's extraordinarily revealing discussion of how cable will compete with the telephone companies, and the real reasons for the dissolution of the potential Bell Atlantic-TCI merger.
The introduction also says that "Hundt made charges of cronyism all the more credible by bragging he was the only man alive to give money both to Gore's first congressional campaign in Tennessee and to Clinton's first run for governor...." While I've heard lots of different charges leveled at me since I arrived, cronyism isn't one of them. Reed Hundt Chairman, FCC
Undo € An important correction to Joshua Quittner's piece in issue 2.10 ("Billions Registered," page 50): the address for Women's Wire is wwire.net. € As for that mention in our Electric Word section of the first public library on the Net (Wired 2.10, page 34), naming the first is always a sticky wicket. Regardless, be it known that Seattle went online in 1993, while the Cleveland Public Library went online in 1990. € Embarrassing oversight of the month: "VSLI," three times on page 113 ("Neurobotics," Wired 2.10, page 111). Of course, it should have been VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration). € Though the error was not one of ours, it should be noted that bell.com's actual Web address is www.bell.com. € In our review of The Ultimate Robot ("Isaac Asimov's The Ultimate Robot," Wired 2.10, page 123), we may have misled people. The developers of this title were from the Judson Rosebush Company. Also, the robot tool kit was designed and programmed by Matthew Schlanger. Ralph McQuarrie was responsible for the robot drawings used as the building blocks in the tool kit. € In "Old Engineers Never Die, They Just Stop Being Upgraded" (Wired 2.09, page 34), we printed the e-mail address of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers incorrectly. Their correct address is: ieeeusa@ieee.org. Other autoresponse files you may find useful include: job listings for members, w.anderson@ieee.org; for Washington internships, info.ieeeusa.wise@ieee.org; and becoming involved in student professional awareness conferences, info.spac@-ieee.org.
Send your Rants & Raves to: E-mail: rants@wiredmag.com
Snail mail:
