__ Rants & Raves __
__ Get Real __
"Attention Shoppers!" has some good points, but Michael Goldhaber's definition of attention as a "limited resource" that could completely replace money is thoughtless. Economies have always revolved around physical things - land, money, or some other tangible good that could be counted and sorted. Goldhaber's currencies of the future are metaphysical resources: attention, intelligence, desire, hate. While metaphysical resources can indirectly affect physical economics - think of brand names - they could never become the standard of currency in a physical world.
Kevin Hill
__ Which Came First? __
Jon Katz's "The Digital Citizen" makes it clear that many people regard communications technology as the driving force behind social and economic change. However, in a modern capitalist society, technology is a tool to help us adapt to and manage change in an increasingly competitive world - it is not some mysterious driving force behind change.
Dave Amis
__ Digital Cynic __
So, 95 percent of the superconnected worship free markets, while only 59 percent believe in democracy. Is it some epiphany that employed, economically ascendant people should believe in free markets more than in democracy? Could it be that the unconnected - the poor, uneducated, economically stagnated - believe less in markets and democracy not because they are less concerned citizens, but because they have been screwed by both?
The connected folks are savvy about the workings of our economy: 50 percent believe that who you know is more important in getting ahead than what you know. The unconnected cling to the propaganda that what you know counts. What does it say about opportunity in the US that the class universally viewed as the final product of a perfect meritocracy doesn't really believe that merit is what got them there?
Clearly, the connected folks suspect that our democracy may actually be a sham. They believe that Bill Gates and Bill Clinton have an almost equal impact on the US. The unconnected cling to the ludicrous myth that a democratically elected president has more influence on the country than an unelected, undemocratic, monopoly-building billionaire. Who is the cynic, and who is the citizen?
David Maizenberg
__ Attention Deficiency __
What a frightening world this would be if attention became our currency, for attention is the currency of children, who scream at the top of their lungs until some haggard adult appeases their need for food, affection, et cetera (Wired 5.12, page 182).
By motivating attention-getting behavior that disrupts society, the attention economy could have warped results. Face it, who gets the most attention? Charles Manson pops to mind. Of course, not all those rich in attention are criminally insane. There's Madonna, Jerry Seinfeld, and Michael Jordan. You can't criticize these people for what they do. But what about the guy who actually works for a living - the anonymous Joe who fixes the pipes when they burst or the gal who puts the widget on the doohickey to make a microchip? Where will they fit in this new economy?
Adam Schair
__ Survey Says __
I cringe whenever unsupported conclusions are drawn from poorly designed surveys. The Digital Citizen survey (Wired 5.12, page 68) is an unfortunate example of this malady.
Designed to measure levels of digital "connectedness," the survey in fact measures levels of affluence. It should come as no surprise that individuals with enough money to afford a laptop, a cell phone, a beeper, and a home computer are also likely to believe in democracy, feel in control of change, and be optimistic about their future. Duh: the system works for them. Why would they feel any other way? Wired would have gotten the same result if the researchers had compared the attitudes of those who drive a Lexus to work with the attitudes of those who take the bus.
Yet Jon Katz goes on to fabricate a cause-and-effect relationship that is completely unsupported by the study. "Clearly, there is now evidence that technology promotes democracy, citizenship, knowledge, literacy, and community," Katz writes. This is pure conjecture. In fact, the survey identifies a correlation only; it does not determine cause and effect in any direction.
Lars Kongshem
- Pollster Frank Luntz's secondary analyses of the Wired/Merrill Lynch Forum Digital Citizen Survey results reveal that two people of similar age, race, education, and income are likely to have different views about politics and society if one is connected and the other is not. (Full survey results at www.hotwired.com/special/citizen/.) *
__ Portrait of the Artist as an Artist __
Steven Holtzman's comments in " The Artist of the Future Is a Technologist" (Wired 5.12, page 256) are the uneducated babble of an effete snob who wouldn't know art if it bit him in the ass. Art is only as good as the entity that creates it. The computer is just a new kind of paintbrush. It will always take true creative genius to produce great art, regardless of the medium. To say that "the future will not be dominated by any of these rare individuals" is no more than a tired '90s retread of the '60s cry "Power to the People!"
Mahlon F. Craft
__ Magic Kingdom __
Piers Bizony missed the most important aspect of the great space debate: the involvement of private enterprise. The satellite-based telecom industry generates billions of dollars annually and provides thousands of jobs. NASA and JPL, by comparison, amount to chump change. The main problem with the International Space Station is not its lack of a mission - "to see how people can live and work in space" - but its choice of partners. Forget Europe, Japan, and especially Russia. Go with Walt Disney. Disney World may be overhyped and expensive, but it still draws millions of people from around the world. Let's make the ISS the Epcot in space.
Bill Stuckey bstuckey@bellsouth.net
__ Man Versus Machine __
While one can argue that manned programs like the space shuttle and the International Space Station are expensive and wasteful ("Lost in Space," Wired 5.12, page 226), it is a leap of logic to thus assume, as Piers Bizony does, that sending humans into space is unnecessary and undesirable.
Bizony falls into the old "humans versus robots" argument that has ripped through science communities for decades. This should not be an either/or proposition. The best way to study the solar system, and to search for evidence of past or present life on worlds like Mars and Europa, is through a combination of preliminary robotic missions and intensive follow-up studies by the most advanced, most knowledgeable, most innovative research devices yet known: humans. As development of reusable launch vehicles makes access to space less expensive, the same inner drive that led us across land and sea will compel us to journey into outer space.
Jeff Foust
__ Innocent Little Angels __
In "Virtual Danger" (Wired 5.11, page 118), I found a gem of a sentence: "Children continue to serve as pawns in America's culture wars." It is so true! No one consulted us about the laws designed to protect us. Why? Because those laws are really designed for the parents. I mean, seriously, how will we be permanently scarred by porn? The Communications Decency Act, the Platform for Internet Content Selection, and the Child Pornography Prevention Act serve the interests of parents who want to believe that their children are innocent little angels. Uh-oh, I better send this - here comes my mom.
Sam
bovine_duck_iv@email.msn.com
__ Fighting the Virus __
As a Bulgarian, I was extremely interested to hear David S. Bennahum's requiem of darkness ("Heart of Darkness," Wired 5.11, page 226). The chorus of cyber pirates reaches all possible notes of this Viruso-Apocalypse Now. The "evil empire" is dead. Long live the "virus empire"! Sadly, the article demonizes thousands of talented Bulgarian programmers, many of whom work in top US companies and most of whom continue to fight the current economic crisis in Bulgaria - not with viruses, but with outstanding software creativity.
Arthur Kordon
__ Undo __
Bug Bug: Patti Maes worked with Yezdi Lashkari, not Max Metral, programming Firefly's agents to learn from each other ("Pattie," Wired 5.12, page 236). Renamed: Empirical Media ("Pattie," Wired 5.12, page 236) became WiseWire Corporation during the first quarter of 1997. Overeager Spellchecker: Two protons that collide in an accelerator ("The Future Ruins of the Nuclear Age," Wired 5.12, page 240) are transformed into muons. Horse Trade: Tito Pontecorvo ("The Future Ruins of the Nuclear Age," Wired 5.12, page 240) is holding the lead on the far right in the photograph on page 254.
Price Fix: ITT Night Vision's Night Mariner 260 binoculars (Wired Tools, Wired 5.12, page 138) sell for US$2,495.
Illusive Illusion: The term illusionary attention ("Attention Shoppers!" Wired 5.12, page 182) should read illusory attention.
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