At 12:50 PM -0500 11/11/96, jbugden@smtplink.alis.ca wrote:
"Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net> wrote:
Well, I think there clearly _is_ a gender gap on these sorts of issues.
Technologies that matter make daily life less obnoxious, and you can leverage them all the time. The Net is going to start mattering in a significant way when it relieves people of the burden of dealing with the garbage inherent in the information flow of everyday life. The net is going to matter when I can rely on
Well, in the 23 years I've been on the Net in one way or another, I can honestly say it is _increased_ my exposure to garbage. The notion that computers are time-savers is fraught with problems. For some tasks, it clearly is. But for other tasks and situations, it's a time sink. I view it primarily as a communications mechanism, e.g., lists like this, the Web, news, etc. Your mileage may vary. Notions that computers will be widely accepted because of their "time-saving" powers I file right next to claims that computers will be useful for storing recipes and balancing checkbooks. --Tim May "The government announcement is disastrous," said Jim Bidzos,.."We warned IBM that the National Security Agency would try to twist their technology." [NYT, 1996-10-02] We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."