From: Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>
P >of the article is "May you live in interesting times".
This phenom is one of my big hopes for cyberspace.
From the citizens perspective, this makes the cop more cooperative to
Me too. The growth of non-centralized transfer of information will certainly bring about more democracy in the world (and thus, less war). Even the presence of large flame wars would not totally diminish the emergence of cooperation. E.g., in WWI, trench warfare dragged on because the soldiers on each side started to cooperate in a sort of subliminal way: trench soldiers from either side would develop a pattern of engagement that created a status quo where no one would get killed. This cooperation trend is eliminated by constantly swapping in new soldiers--this depersonifies the enemy and makes it easier to shoot to kill. (I think this same effect is also seen in police beats--if the local cop gets really friendly, s/he starts cooperating with the people s/he is protecting rather than being completely objective. From the "authority and control" perspective, this makes the cop corruptable. the direct needs (however unfair--it is more personal) of the citizens.) I mention "interesting times" since the transition to new freedoms does not occur without a fight from the side that loses some of its control. Overall, the effect of personifying people's enemies (proportionally less slanted, centrally transmitted news) should have a positive impact. Paul E. Baclace peb@netcom.com