RANTS & RAVES
Bring the Noise
October's "Superproducers" package raised the roof, but it was an essay in View that really got the Wired faithful to sound off. "Religion Be Damned," by evolutionary fundamentalist Richard Dawkins, had atheists singing the biologist's praises.
On the other side of the aisle, one righteous reader demanded the blasphemer get down on his knees and pray: "Try it, Richard. I dare you." The drifters story, tracking the growth of skid-racing, also got people plenty revved up: "You are just writing about a subculture that's mad it can't afford a real sports car." Meanwhile drift fans petitioned to block ugly-American translations of the seminal manga Initial D. (How's this for a new title: All Your Brakes Are Belong to Us.)
Finally, a note to the Salt Lake City devotee of Japanese Schoolgirl Watch who mourned the section's absence in the October issue: Click here - you'll get an eyeful.
Production Value-Added
It's about time the creative minds behind music ("Superproducers," Wired 11.10) got their overdue respect and props. It would be great to know what tools these superproducers use to make their hits. They might not be willing to give up their trade secrets, but maybe Wired could do some independent research on the latest drumbeat programs, sampling applications, and digital recording software. You wrote, "The tools of professional sound production keep getting faster, cheaper, and smaller." So share the creative freedom they offer and open the floodgates to up-and-coming producers.
Toby Walker
Arcata, California
It's time to redefine the way people think about music. Stop calling it art and start calling it "musifacturing."
While Pro Tools and similar products have empowered amateurs and semiprofessionals, they have also given big-time producers the ability to manufacture cheap mutations of their music rather than create. The superproducers may have hit on a fresh angle back in the day, but too many have taken their styles and burned them out.
Besides, what good is it to have street cred and the tools to bang out a song on a laptop, when for each musifactured tune on the radio there are a half-dozen amateur pieces with infinitely more charm and allure?
Pedro Bonano
Albuquerque, New Mexico
You chose to use a threatening, in-your-face, dead-ass stare from a black man to showcase superproducers. Isn't music a celebration? Where's the smile? Do black people always look so threatening? Music is beautiful - from hip hop to blues to classical. Let's have some positive attitude, please. The kids are modeling all this shit; let's reinforce a little brotherhood.
Wayne Zebzda
Kauai, Hawaii
Tragic Parting
As someone who has had neurosurgery, I want to compliment you on your excellent and sensitively written article about the Bijani twins ("Till Death Do Us Part," Wired 11.10). It was a tragic and traumatic situation for everyone involved. If only they had attempted this in stages as Ben Carson recommended.
MRI technology is a marvelous window into the brain and body, but I'm sure there will be even greater technological strides in both development and application. Without this technology, I might not be writing to you today.
Mimi G. Kimbrough
Newark, Delaware
I'm struck by the issues of financial conflict of interest for Singapore's Raffles Hospital and patient positioning for the angiogram. Even though the patients were apparently extremely motivated to be surgically separated, this does not diminish the ethical duty to think about conflict of interest, especially when the risks are so high.
Katrina A. Bramstedt
Director, Research Subject Advocacy Program
Department of Bioethics, Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland, Ohio
Get the Drift
To suggest that drifting is something that we in the US are just now getting introduced to is absurd ("Go, Skid Racer, Go!" Wired 11.10).
Before wings were introduced to Formula 1 cars in 1968, four-wheel drift was a fact of life for Grand Prix racers. This is made instantly clear to anybody who tries to play the 1998 PC game Grand Prix Legends - a game that has a cult fan base, in large part because its physics engine so expertly models four-wheel drifting.
Not knowing about Grand Prix Legends may be forgivable, but not recognizing that just about every rally game released in the last four years has had a well-developed drift engine - notably 2001's Rally Trophy - is nothing but a display of total ignorance.
Aran Johnson
Oakland, California
This guy in Japan may have made a sport and called it drifting, but it reminds me of what we did with old Fords, Chevys, and Plymouths. Take a front-heavy car with a big V8, slide into the turns, and power around them. Many Americans have been doing this since the 1950s. Maybe it's another one of those, invented here in the US and made practical for all by Japan.
Keith Wheeler
Atlanta, Georgia
If you want to see outrageous, high-performance driving by folks who are absolute masters of car control, you should check out the World Rally Championship races. Those guys (and gals, sometimes) know how to drive, and the cars are monsters hand-built by some of the world's largest manufacturers, like Ford and Subaru. Several years ago, the governing body had to tone down the cars by limiting horsepower - 800-plus was the norm. You can see WRC events on Speed (the TV channel). Watch Marcus Gronholm take his Peugeot around a dirt corner at 100-plus mph, and you'll know what I'm talking about.
Roger Webster
San Jose, California
All in the Family
Robert Edwards' work represents the "we'll do this because we can" view found in abundance among those doing biomedical research ("Test-Tube Family Reunion," Wired 11.10). While I don't fault the Browns or any of the others with fertility problems, in my view it's like the guy who writes computer viruses or invents bullets that can shoot through body armor: Amazing accomplishment, but why do it? Is this helpful? Not really, it seems to me.
Ken Kraska
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Play It Again
How could you write an article on the state of the DVR ("The Fast-Forward, On-Demand, Network-Smashing Future of Television," Wired 11.10) and not mention ReplayTV?! This is the machine that introduced the 30-second skip button and the only company to sell a DVR with automatic commercial advance. It is also the first DVR to have broadband connectivity, unit-to-unit streaming, and Internet show-sharing.
Michael Aronoff
Calabasas, California
Paying the Price
If illegal downloads have cost the music industry a billion dollars (Start, Infoporn, Wired 11.10), what about the cash it loses because of the thousands of retail stores that buy, trade, and sell used CDs? Do you really think Jimmy Page and Robert Plant get a dime of royalty every time a used copy of Led Zeppelin III is bought, traded, or sold? Yet I don't see the record industry coming down on Media Play or Amazon.com. It seems that as long as someone is making money - no matter who - it's OK. But as soon as someone tries to give music away, it becomes a crime.
Michael Northrop
Salt Lake City, Utah
As a fan of Wired, a music lover, and a consultant to the entertainment industry, I have to express my disappointment with Rebecca Harper's Infoporn on "the forces behind falling music sales." The article mockingly enjoys the demise of the industry; it also depicts and ultimately confuses the relationship between cause and effect. Clearly, the music industry needs to improve in a number of areas and will continue to evolve. Let's be honest, though: Articles like this are written for the simple reason that a lot of people want to hear these emotionally charged criticisms to justify stealing music. Give your readers something meaningful to think: People who steal aren't customers, they're thieves.
Bryan Kindland
Atlanta, Georgia
Not So Bright
Richard Dawkins introduced half a meme when he suggested atheists, agnostics, Darwinians, and other assorted thinkers adopt the label bright (View, "Religion Be Damned," Wired 11.10). Methinks the word is good, but the meme truly comes to life when the spelling is rendered brite, as in sprite. Hell, how about brite sprites?
John Bailey
Scotts Valley, California
At least Wired got the headline right - Richard Dawkins preaches atheism. Amen.
As a card-carrying "dim," I am not buying all this pseudoscientific jive about objectivity. Scientists are totally out of bounds when they make the leap of faith from the realm of data and observations to metaphysical speculations. There is nothing in all the so-called scientific theories of origins and ontology that was not offered for consideration by the ancient Greeks. There is certainly much better data, but no better ideas. Brights can't see the light for a very simple reason - they are blinded by themselves.
Myles Dempsey Jr.
Easton, Connecticut
Unlike the term gay, which has a positive connotation of self-expression, bright shows an exclusivist distinction by implying a connection between intelligence and a particular worldview. If so-called brights seek to avoid the stereotype of intellectual elitism, then I urge them to make another choice.
Jon Crowe
Wenham, Massachusetts
Dawkins' article about brights takes on the flavor of an impotent coming-out manifesto. His "atheists are people too" argument seems stale, elitist, insecure, and bigoted. Does anybody actually believe science and God are mutually exclusive? This outlook seems as sorely old-school as his selfish gene idea.
The smooth-sounding sobriquet is nothing more than a small-minded attempt to correct a perceived image problem. The attempt betrays a laughable lack of intuition about how language evolves: He conjectures that the word gay had something to do with historical improvements in tolerance among the very same American majority he derides for its faithful idiocy. As gay needed straight, will bright require a catchy antonym? What will we call Dawkins' beloved American majority then? Darklords? Dims? How about Gloomy Gloomers?
Eric Jol
Ottawa, Ontario
I recently attended a meeting of a bunch of my fellow gays and we decided to give up our happy title. We are handing it over to Richard Dawkins and all atheists, agnostics, et cetera, so they may use it to identify their "nonspiritual" orientation. We believe that because the word worked so well in making us a happy and popular minority, as Dawkins asserted, then it will no doubt do the same for the poor, put-upon nonbelievers of the English-speaking world. In return for our great sacrifice, we homosexuals would now like to be called brights. We think the word will really suit us better, since not only does it imply that we are happy (like gay) but also that we are clever. Truthfully, most homosexuals I know (including myself) are bright (meaning as smart as atheists). Therefore, using Dawkins' reasoning, since most homosexuals I know are bright (meaning as smart as Dawkins), then I bet that there's a statistical tendency for homosexuals to be bright. Wow, science is easy the Dr. Dawkins way!
Jack Hanley
Brooklyn, New York
Public Works
Joseph Stiglitz (View, "The Dark Side of the Boom," Wired 11.10) claims "the majority of innovation comes from public investment." That debatable statement (what about the work of Thomas Edison and Dean Kamen?) ignores the fact that his three examples - the Net, radar, and jets - were initially funded for national defense, the job of every government. The improvements and applications that turned these innovations into everyday things were done largely in the private sector. Perhaps Stiglitz has quit working as an economist to become an ideologue, just like Paul Krugman.
Christopher Glick
Tokushima, Japan
Nice Shades
The October issue features the Ray-Ban Remembrex artifact from the future (Found, Wired 11.10). Holy crap, I hope we're not still wearing suits and ties in 2015. Can't someone help men's fashion by then?
Ralph M. Eronemo
Bellevue, Washington
UNDO
Keep Those Options Open:
Neither Ken Lay nor Frank Quattrone were charged with abusing stock options (Start, Wired 11.10).
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