So much gnashing of teeth about May's "Future of Food," and from both sides of the political plate. "'Super Organics' reads exactly like a Greenpeace press release," one writer spat. "The Bluewater Revolution" also raised plenty of bile: "What kind of moron" - wait, is this a rhetorical question? - "proposes producing more meat to feed the 'hungry' in the world when the grains we produce could be used for people instead of wasteful beef cattle? How can you even joke about an 'expanding middle class' when the wealth has never been so concentrated in the hands of a few?" ("Expanding" middle class - now that's rich.) But the most sublime apoplexy came from the kindly soul who connected smart breeding to outsourcing, then concluded: "If all our lovely tech jobs go to India, your very own reader base will shrink up to nothing, just like your shareholders' balls." Nothing beats being, ahem, privately held.
Staying Hungry
Giant robot fish farms and plants that turn red when water-stressed sound cool, but contrary to your May features, new technologies really won't feed the world's hungry ("The Bluewater Revolution," "Super Organics," Wired 12.05). Hunger results from poverty, not a shortage of food, and solutions lie in political will, not technological silver bullets.
The green revolution made India the world's second-largest wheat producer, but India remains number one in the amount of hungry people. Poverty and hunger are increasing not because the world lacks agricultural technology but because corporate globalization is systematically destroying rural economies. Farmers in poor countries don't need new technology; they need decent farmland, fair prices, and customers with money.
Clifford Bradley
Missoula, Montana
In "The Bluewater Revolution," no one addressed the issue that came to my cynical mind: How do you prevent human predators (fish pirates) from taking the catch while it's still in the open sea? These drifting farms would be easy to find, and it sure would be less trouble than fishing the old-fashioned way!
John Rawlins
Eagan, Minnesota
Staying Alive
I received the May issue with great delight. But I was very surprised at how far-out the NextFest medicine article was ("The Cure," Wired 12.05). HIV/AIDS and Alzheimer's are probably Josh McHugh's closest hits. The rest is a hair away from pure fancy, especially the parts about cancer. "Chip-based DNA microarrays"? Come on. It's much more likely that oncologists will one day harness voodoo and psychic surgery to cast out the evil spirits that cause cancer. Whatever McHugh has been smoking, the chance that a chip-based DNA microarray is going to save him from cancer is that of a snowball in hell. Please help McHugh stop smoking so that we can have the benefit of his imagination for years to come.
Randy Novick
Edgewater, Colorado
While McHugh's article makes for interesting reading, I dare say the cited medical advances are nothing more than wishful thinking. Those of us who live in the real world know it can require a lawyer to get an insurance company to pay for even a routine doctor's visit, so it's hard to see how any of those advanced medical treatments will affect the common man. Unless a person has tens of thousands of dollars lying around, standard medical care, much less anything else, is out of the question.
H. Richard Haley
Dandridge, Tennessee
And Now a Word From Our Sponsor
"Watch This Way" (Wired 12.05) shows the dreamworld that ad and TV execs are living in. They think we're "just as happy watching 43-minute dramas with 17 minutes of commercials"?
Most of us know you have to tolerate a reasonable amount of advertising to enjoy free TV. But anybody who thinks the current amount is reasonable or tolerable is off their rocker. Networks evidently think we have to put up with whatever ads they want to throw at us and there is nothing we can do about it. Well, there is something we can do - get devices that let us avoid commercials altogether or press the mute button at the first sign of an ad. We can only hope that greed will get its just deserts, sooner rather than later.
Steve Birnbaum
Chicago, Illinois
Push 2.0
Gary Wolf is right about one thing (Start, "The Return of Push!," Wired 12.05): RSS is fulfilling some of the original promise of push. But that doesn't mean RSS is an example of push. If I leave a plate of cookies on my doorstep and invite you to take one every hour, would you say I brought you cookies?
In order to call something push, the publisher has to willfully send it to the user. In contrast, RSS feeds sit on a plain vanilla server waiting for an anonymous client to pick them up. This is plain old HTTP we're talking about - no magical method makes RSS delivery different from the rest of the Web. I request a page; I pull it toward me. RSS works exactly the same way. If RSS is a push technology, then so is Tim Berners-Lee's original Web. RSS probably is the Net's next big thing, but it sure isn't push.
Scot Hacker
El Cerrito, California
Rush Week at Alpha Geek House
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that Frank Gehry doesn't know what a rocket scientist wants ("Frank Gehry's Geek Palace," Wired 12.05). I give the building a week before the researchers start bringing in drywall and converting their parking spaces into offices that are useful. Don't worry, Gehry, the building will make a wonderful freshman dorm.
Terrence Breitsameter
Chicago, Illinois
The Stupidest Smart Person
Regarding "Poindexter Confidential" (Wired 12.05): What a guy! The interview illustrates why Poindexter is dangerous. He's both smart and stupid.
He gets a PhD in nuclear physics from Caltech. That's smart. Privacy is "certainly not a constitutional right"? That's stupid. He simply dislikes that the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that privacy is a constitutional right.
When he and Oliver North thought arming civilians was smart in Nicaragua, it was stupid, five felonies stupid. They were promoting the violent overthrow of an established government, not its protection. Here and now in 9/11 land, something about the idea of civilians as antiterrorists may actually be smart, but Poindexter duct-tapes his lips. That's stupid. The American way has long been to self-organize and react rapidly. Think airplane parts raining down on Pennsylvania soil instead of blasting into Pennsylvania Avenue. That was smart. Distributed processing wins again.
J. R. Getsinger
Concord, Massachusetts
Poindexter's addition of "for good or evil" to the IAO motto "knowledge is power," invites a tangential comment: Knowledge is power only to those with the means to act on that knowledge. It's all too popular among the privileged to overemphasize freedom of speech and information as a smoke screen for the primary means of influence: wealth. I can say or read or gather data however I please, but without the ability to act, it's vapor.
Jeff Harmon
Oakland, California
This Is Your Brain on P2P
Jeff Howe's "File-Sharing Is, Like, Totally Uncool" (Wired 12.05) reminds me of the DARE antidrug program found in many school districts, with the tag line "Just Say No" replaced with "What's the Diff?" In both programs, the role-playing is a lesson less in real life than in regurgitation. It may be of interest to the MPAA and participating schools that DARE failed to show any effectiveness in reducing drug use compared to control groups.
Tomo Huynh
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Dude, Where's My Minivan?
Regarding "Endless Summer on Demand" (Wired 12.05): "Surf bum"? Get your head out of your pencil protector and look around at the world. Just because you were the first one hit in dodgeball doesn't mean you need to take revenge on people with athleticism. I know surfers from every walk of life. Just like you guys are sick of the stereotype of the 40-year-old virgin (I'm sure some of you have been laid), surfing is so mainstream nowadays, it's more of a soccer mom-type sport.
James Dowds
Folly Beach, South Carolina
Kerry Black's artificial surf pools are clever and innovative, and I can't wait to ride in one. But they do take some of the sport out of surfing. With Black's pool, you just jump in and ride the pocket every time. There's no paddling out, no positioning strategy, no surf etiquette learned. When the artificially taught surfers come from Kansas and jump into the cost-free real ocean in California, there will be more surfers in the water than ever (big problem) who have a limited idea of what they are doing (bigger problem).
Brian Chernicky
Encinitas, California
The Big Chill
"The Doctor Will Freeze You Now" (Wired 12.05) was, pun intended, very cool. But why be embarrassed about the connection to cryonics? If cryonics can work, isn't it much more "creepy" to let your loved ones rot or burn?
Peter Merel
Limpinwood, Australia
Undo
• Beats Me: Prior to becoming a technology columnist, Walt Mossberg ("The Kingmaker," Wired 12.05) was not a Wall Street Journal investigative reporter. As he told Wired, he was a beat reporter covering the auto industry, labor, energy, defense, economics, and national security. • Sweet Valley High: Sierra Vista High School is in California's Santa Clarita Valley ("File-Sharing Is, Like, Totally Uncool," Wired 12.05). • To Dell and Back: "Flat Is Beautiful" (Test, Wired 12.05) discussed a Dell monitor but showed a nearly identical Gateway; both are manufactured by LG Electronics. • Love Bug: The Tamagotchi 2.0 photo in "Infrared-Light District" (Play, Wired 12.05) came from Bandai.
