CDR: Sagan's V-Chips

Ann Onim nobody at generalprotectionfault.net
Mon Oct 30 04:23:15 PST 2000



>"Neil Johnson" <njohnson at interl.net> wrote
>
>As for the V-Chip. I've seen enough programs rated "For All Ages" that are
>not appropriate for  young kids to know that they are worthless. (By the way
>I want a P-chip to filter Politicians, a BB-(Bible Beater) chip to filter
>out the 700 Club. etc. I seem to remember that's what made the billions for
>the character in Sagan's "Contact" ).
>

[From memory]

The device you describe is called Ad-nix (mutes the sound when the
commercials come on) which was closely followed by Preach-nix (mutes
sound when televangelists appear).  This device was made possible by
impossibly good speech/context recognition software running in a set
top box.  And, when I first heard about the set top dirty word filters
mentioned in Wired, I assumed these were a hoax...

In the book, advertisers and televangelists fought back against the
loss of their income with a suit claiming that THEIR first amendment
protected rights were being infringed.  Imagine the AFA whining about
not being able to inflict their speech on the unwilling.  (All that TV
has rotted my long term memory :-)

The lawsuit was unsuccessful, although the NSA eventually snatched the
speech recognition algorithms away in the interests of national
security.

BTW: Can Uncle Sam slap a secrecy order on GPL/public domain code, or
do you have to actually apply to the patent office to risk this
happening?

[Also from memory]

There was a short film (first shown in the UK in 1998?  I think it won
some kind of award) called King of Chaos, in which a small time
programmer works his way up to become an international software and
media magnate.

His crowning achievement was the invention of a set top box, which
retransmitted subscription channels to other boxes for free.  After
destroying traditional media, he then made his fortune selling ratings
and searching for content that matched the user's requirements,
selling this service for a fee.  

Using this fortune he diversified into other markets (health,
education, pensions, unemployment insurance) and attempted to replace
the government's role in all these fields.  He fell foul of the UK
government when he refused to inflict 'party political broadcasts' on
his unwilling customers.  All very Cyphernomiconish...

If anyone can knows where I can get a script of this could you please
tell the list?







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