Rants & Raves
"AWESOME! That's AWESOME!"
Within hours of hitting the newsstand, May's inside look at The Matrix Reloaded had fanboys slapping virtual high-fives on sites like thelastfreecity.com. The favorite passage by far: Steve Silberman's account of the "raging river of whup-ass" called the Burly Brawl. Meanwhile, a fistful of stories got readers fighting mad, most notably David Gelernter's book review of Enough, a genetic call to arms by Bill McKibben. But one sly observer ascribed even greater power to our pages: "Your interviews always seem to be harbingers of someone's resignation. You run a big article on Barry Diller (Wired 11.04), and several days later he steps down from Vivendi. Then you run one on 'Minister of Net Defense' Howard Schmidt (11.05), and he announces his resignation. That's gotta hurt." Touch�. Oh, by the way: To anyone in the market for a skilled Unix coder, there's a Q&A with Linus Torvalds on page 132.
The Matrix Is Everywhere
Loved "Matrix2" by Steve Silberman (Wired 11.05). The writing was outstanding, the development and thought progression were great, the background on the Wachowskis and the development of the original movie was solid and informative, and the technical terms converted into lay terminology was perfect for the piece. The article basically made me pee my pants (and I normally have really good bladder control). The tie-in to 19th-century mapmakers was brilliant - very Malcolm Gladwell in its pulling in of a seemingly unconnected topic and then fusing the two together masterfully.
Charlie Park
Richmond, Virginia
Bullet Time creator John Gaeta neglected to mention his biggest influence: Zoolander. The deer caught in the headlights look, the pout in every picture - the guy is practically auditioning for Zoolander 2: Designers Are Beautiful, Too. Good article, once you stop laughing at the pictures.
Leonardo Canneto
Los Angeles, California
Gimme $5 on Sea of Tranquility
LunaCorp's David Gump thinks "we know now that the shuttle's failure rate is 1 in 55" ("The Race Back to the Moon," Wired 11.05). I hope he isn't making business decisions based on that kind of understanding of the laws of probability. One failure in the first 55 trials doesn't tell you much about the probability of failure on the next trial (or next 55 trials).
Jim Wells,
Melbourne, Florida
Back in the Sidesaddle Again
Fancy-pants nancy boys! Thy hipsters hath scorned their brethren! Why no BMX bikes in "Human Power" (Wired 11.05)? I am tired of having effeminate $5,000 mountain bikes crammed down my throat, while perfectly fine 20-inch bikes are relegated to teens and hoodlums! Aluminum and titanium were precious metals used in BMX racing before mountain biking was even a word.
Bart Laube
Cincinnati, Ohio
You failed to mention equipment for one of the most basic ways to move yourself: the unicycle. There have been tons of improvements, and, as a result, many of my friends (myself included) now own unicycles for mountain uni, trials uni, and commuting.
Luke Closs
Vancouver, British Columbia
Eat Me
David Appell's article about GM foods is entirely incorrect (Start, "Why GM Food Could Start a Trade War," Wired 11.05): No independent body has deemed GM foods safe. (I refer you to the site of Physicians and Scientists for Responsible Application of Science and Technology: www.psrast.org.) Perhaps your editorial staff should have weeded out this conservative propaganda, or are you applying the principle of "substantial equivalence" to the truth?
Robert Vondelys
University City, Missouri
Flipping the Script
In "To Live and Die in LA" (Wired 11.05), the exec being interviewed about how tracking works says, "It's really about buzz ... This script, as bad as it sounds, has it." The script in question, Pet Store, is one I wrote. I got a good chuckle out of that. In case you were curious, I closed a deal with 20th Century Fox. We actually got two offers, but Fox won out.
Eric Barker
Los Angeles, California
I never knew tracking boards held such sway with higher-ups in the industry. As a fella who champions truth above nearly all else (aside from good sushi and Monica Bellucci), I salute Ben Mezrich for his ballsy writing - he put his name on something that could possibly make very uncomfortable the same executives he needs to work with as a screenwriter. I mean, passing on a script based on Internet gossip? Torpedoing a good project based on petty politics? Truly, you painted Hollywood in a glaring light with an expert brush - my man Hunter S. Thompson would be proud indeed.
Ted E. Grau III
Los Angeles, California
Enough Is Too Much
The praise for Bill McKibben's latest book, Enough, puzzles me more and more (Play, "The End of Human Nature," Wired 11.05). David Gelernter's review praises him for looking to Deuteronomy for guidance. Have you read Deuteronomy? 22:5 says, "A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman's garment, for all who do so are an abomination to the LORD your God." (See also 13, 17:1-7, and 20:16-18 on the extermination of pagans.) What arbitrary definition of "nature" does Bill want us to respect? And more important, what steps would he take to stop "arrogant" people from sinning?
Dan Keys
Princeton Junction, New Jersey
Development has always produced upgrades, but they've always come at a slow enough pace that Dad was proud of his swifter son, not afraid. But we're in the GAC now, the geometric acceleration of change: Upgrades will be coming faster than the generations themselves. Good or bad, change is coming. We can influence it, and we'd better.
Don't fear the upgrade.
Les Vegas
Rifton, New York
Aiming High
I agree with James Paul Gee that videogames can be excellent for applied learning (View, "High Score Education," Wired 11.05). But the pressure to make money does not necessarily provide titles that are truly imaginative, creative, and captivating. Gee gave examples like Age of Mythology and Warcraft III in defense of how strategy games can teach micromanagement and forethought. Right on the money. But the designers involved just took a style that has worked in the past and did not in any way push the genre. Look at Half-Life or Counter-Strike: Companies can make a lot of money on base, formulaic, unoriginal games for the masses. Just add a few new features, change the graphics engine, and hopefully give it an interesting story.
We need more designers, and the companies behind them, to excel beyond current static production practices. Then the world's children can apply the "principle of expertise" and interact with a medium derived from progressive imagination.
Ed Walker
Vancouver, British Columbia
Fire in the Sky
Regarding "The New Cold War" (Sterling, Wired 11.05): China and India are both coming out as possible future superpowers through their developments of nuclear and space technology. And the world would be watching if Indians or Chinese were to fold and put away America's flag on the moon. But America would put it back - the United States is unlikely to find itself overshadowed by new powers.
You focused only on the space race as an alternative to a nuclear arms race. But if either the Chinese or the Indians float first into space, that doesn't mean nuclear arms won't be detonated on Earth.
Adina David
New York, New York
UNDO
The Core: Former Apple CEO John Sculley planted the QuickTime seed at Apple ("The Lab That Fell to Earth," Wired 11.05).
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