Rants & Raves
In the Mode
William Gibson and Frank Rose gush about i-mode in Japan (respectively, "My Own Private Tokyo," Wired 9.09, page 117, and "Pocket Monster," page 126). It is hard these days to stand on any subway platform, street corner, or lift in Tokyo without seeing i-mode tribe members staring into those phones. But watch them a bit, and you'll notice something strange. They just keep staring into their phones. This suggests that either the content is putting them into an alpha state, or they just can't figure out how the phones work.
Stewart Taggart
t@staggart.net
Viral Marketplace of Ideas
"The Citizen Scientists" (Wired 9.09, page 144) is inspirational in describing how a few people leveraged by the Internet can accomplish significant things, instructional in showing how the public can influence and interact with closed informational clubs, and stimulating with regard to conveying what might be done in other, nonmedical arenas. Why couldn't we organize a product-recall Web site dealing with everything from cars to foods and amplified by feedback to the Better Business Bureau? Or we could seek political action. Or evaluate charities.
As the DoCoMo article "Pocket Monster" in the same issue suggests, US corporations may not have the customer sensitivity that Japanese companies do, but American firms cannot ignore customer response, product requirements, or decent business practices if information about these facets is public - that is, displayed on the Internet.
It seems to me we can get more complete information on the Web and maybe avoid the need for legislation regarding product content.
Cliff Sundberg
cliffsundberg@excite.com
Tune In, Turn On, Buckle Up
Wired 9.09 contained a pair of items that together suggest a coming cool kind of videogame. "Ichiban" (page 120) notes that the trend toward musical videogames is "further blurring the line between equipment and instrument." Just 20 pages earlier, the article about AI maestro Gerhard Widmer ("The Creative Processor," page 100), who sends us on a symphonic classical music trip, concludes with the words "He ... will enjoy the ride."
Videogames could take players on dazzling synthetic journeys along the "performance curves" of dramatic and sublime musical works - overtures, rhapsodies, and symphonic furiants by Rossini and Mussorgsky, Dvořák and Dukas - challenging the player/rider/performer to stay aboard wild, morphing-by-the-moment roller coasters of complex color and sound! These symphonic game experiences could also function as a form of musical performance training, helping expand the next generation of classical players and rescuing an artistic tradition too beautiful to die.
Nineteenth-century high art and 21st-century high tech could combine to create the highest expression of human civilization - and could, of course, be a lot of fun!
Gregory Wright
wright@sunutility.com
©ommunion™
I had to laugh at the Electric Word item that featured Boston-based art collective Release1's Mass-snax - "an EZ-open, single-serving pack of holy wine and communion wafers for drive-thru Christian culture" - as though such a thing were just too clever and too extreme to be possible ("New and Improved!" Wired 9.09, page 56). As any clergy person can tell you, church supply catalogs have carried these things for years. Go to www.berean.com/SITE/communion/supplies.html and look at "Remembrance Set" - "Double-sealed and disposable, individual Remembrance® wafer and juice sets combine modern convenience and purity with a taste for tradition."
The men-only Promise Keepers organization allegedly used this kind of snack pack at their arena-based conferences a few years ago. (I can't confirm this; women aren't allowed into a PK event.) Wouldn't want to get germs from the guy sitting next to you, would you? Who knows where he's been?
Susan Erdey
New York, New York
Decoding the Art in Mozart
Regarding "The Creative Processor" (Wired 9.09, page 100) - great article! Gerhard Widmer could perhaps save himself a lot of time and energy analyzing a MIDI'd electronic wind instrument. Fifteen years ago, I witnessed firsthand the startling reproduction of a player's slightest whim with a Bösendorfer 290 SE, so it's little wonder that Widmer and his colleagues have come under the intoxicating spell of this majestic instrument. However, wouldn't analyzing the way different bassoonists tackle, say, Mozart's Bassoon Concerto, K. 191, be as valid? All the features Widmer and his team are examining would still apply: tempo variation, lightness/heaviness of phrasing, dynamics, et cetera. The only thing he wouldn't be getting is polyphony.
David Jutt
New York, New York
As a musician, my biggest gripes with Pat Blashill's article are his assertion that Widmer's learning machines will uncover "previously unteachable rules that underpin live musical performance" and his assumption that these "rules" will be useful to performing musicians. However, an analysis of a great performance is just as dead as the score, and these "rules" cannot be taught but must be learned through experience. Rules do not answer the question Why? but only How?
Musicianship is not an absolute, but a creative process that involves countless hours of score study, practice, and listening - not to mention the equally important understanding of history, art, and languages, as well as the composer's life, when the music was written, and what pieces influenced the artist's conception of the work in question. These considerations are far beyond the scope of modern computing.
The learning machines represent huge strides in the field of AI, and I expect that we will see some incredible breakthroughs in the next few years as a result of Widmer's research, but I doubt his rules will help student artists trying to play like Batik.
Paul Miller
sushi_junkie@hotmail.com
Settling Accounts
I have been wondering when a service like PayPal would indeed see the potential it has to disenfranchise the banking establishment ("The Money Shot," Wired 9.09, page 86). The notion that Muscovites can open accounts offshore is merely a cautionary tale. The real issue, I believe, is US citizens' opening accounts offshore and diverting funds for disposal in nontaxable, untraceable ways.
Banks have owned the franchise in safekeeping funds. Now, however, safekeeping is no longer based on physical security but personal authentication, and, as we move into an era where this can be safely and accurately enabled by technology, that franchise becomes meaningless.
The big question is: What becomes of the world economy when individuals have complete control and privacy in the managing of their funds? This will happen; it is just a matter of time.
Michael Joseph
mjoseph@ny.razorfish.com
Undo
Demolition Man: Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel was razed in 1968 ("Ichiban," Wired 9.09, page 120). ... Design Development: DDC signed a deal with the Gap ("Slick as Teflon! Tough as Kevlar! Limber as Lycra!" Wired 9.10, page 158).
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