Rants & Raves
I'm With the Brand
It was a pleasure to read Ethan Smith's well-crafted profile ("Organization Moby," Wired 10.05, page 86). More than entertaining, it was creative, revealing, and relevant. Weaving in William Whyte's ideas on Organization Man was a great touchstone, and the notion that collaboration makes ideas real or worthy is a brilliant one to include in a piece about the Moby machine.
But I'm no intellectual. That's why I also loved the club-scene juxtaposition of peacocky P. Diddy and his entourage rolling by Moby in his little nylon jacket. Moby's so subtle a powerhouse, he really can be everywhere.
__ Beth Rutledge
Minneapolis, Minnesota __
I was struck by the irony of Moby, that guru of all things musically digital, having been visually manipulated for your cover not by Photoshop or any other program, but by a bucket of paint. A wonderful image, done with a straight photo shoot and no computerized gimmicks.
Stefan Jones StefanJones1@yahoo.com
Soul of a Sound Machine
Erik Davis says that self-generating, autonomous music is a problem because of its infinite flexibility ("Songs in the Key of F12," Wired 10.05, page 96). But the RIAA isn't the only one in danger: Musicians are about to be replaced by algorithms. If a computer can beat a grandmaster at chess, then ever-increasing CPU speeds can create innovative, original, and never-before-heard tunes tailored to our liking. Sure, we've got techno — but how about laptop-generated music in your favorite genre?
We're five or ten years away from the day our kids will carry around portable music-creation devices. Whatever happens, we are likely entering a time when the "recording" gets taken out of the industry: The rewards will go not to the companies with the best artists but to the companies with the best algorithms.
Webcasters, don't throw in the towel just yet.
__ Christopher Lindley chris@westernstatic.com __
I cringed when I saw you were covering laptop techno, because so many writers have gotten it so, so wrong. I take this personally, having written about various strains of laptop techno for several years now. But you nailed it from all angles: aesthetic, cultural, and technological.
I especially appreciate your reminder that nearly all music today is in some sense electronic. I've been evangelizing that point pretty hard lately, as a means of demystifying what people normally think of as electronic music but also in the hope of encouraging electronica to open up a bit and not define itself too rigidly. Nicely done.
Philip Sherburne philipsherburne@yahoo.com
Being Human
We have a 17-year-old son with Angelman syndrome, who requires assistance with almost all activities of daily living. Had we known of his condition prior to his birth, I have no doubt we would have chosen abortion. If new technology suddenly allowed us to "correct" his genetic malformation, I am much less sure we would employ it. That may sound curiously inconsistent, but it goes to the heart of the eugenics debate discussed in "The Remastered Race" (Wired 10.05, page 68).
Our lives, and the lives of everyone who knows our son, are changed. Because he requires more care, we have learned patience. Because he is different, we have learned tolerance and compassion. Because he has a great sense of humor, we have learned to laugh at ourselves.
If it were possible to correct all of the "defects" that make us different, I have no doubt our society would be more productive, health expenditures would be slashed, and parents would never have to endure the pain of loving a child with disabilities. But would that make our race better?
The trajectory of human development has to be judged in qualitative terms. It cannot be measured simply by higher IQs, lower cholesterol, and longer lives. One of the other characteristics of people with Angelman syndrome is a happy disposition. Is our son worse off than a mean-spirited MIT graduate? Is society better off because of Enron executives? Eugenics is about engineering out pain and weakness - but those are precisely what make us human.
__ Fred Pritzker fhp@pritzkerlaw.com__
Robots in the Trenches
I really enjoyed "The New Mobile Infantry" (Wired 10.05, page 110), but I was surprised that the author didn't mention some of the more immediate uses for this kind of technology. Robots already patrol sewer systems and pipelines too dangerous for human workers; small surveillance robots would be invaluable to police handling hostage situations or drug busts.
__ Crista M. Livecchi cmlivecchi@hotmail.com__
Plane Crashes of the XPKind
Pilotless airliners? Not in 30 years, maybe never ("Wanna Bet?" Wired 10.05, page 120). Modern aircraft already have the sensors and need only a couple of Pentiums' worth of computing power on board to take off, fly, and land without a pilot. One or two more servos for taxiing and brakes would complete the set.
The problem is, there is no Moore's law for software reliability. XP crashes about as often as DOS did a decade ago, and if there's only software flying the plane, crashing and blue screen of death have quite more literal meanings.
Machines compute, humans think.
__ William A. Lynn III walynn3@mac.com__
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