"Time" Magazine and "Future Shock" Author

[tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)]

[I'm into my daily "blackout" of toad mail to Netcom, so am posting
blind, as usual. If this article has already been posted, my
condolences.]


The January 23rd issue of "Time," this week's issue, features a cover
story on talk shows, Limbaugh, Gingrich, and "HyperDemocracy." I
haven't seen the physical issue yet, but have skimmed the Web version
at:

http://www.timeinc.com/time/magazine/magazine.html

Point your browser at it and have fun.

Lots of folks are flaming the article, in the usual newsgroups (e.g.,
alt.data-highway). Me, I'm as scared as "Time" is about "direct,
electronic democracy," though perhaps for different reasons.

On a related note, the article and sidebars touch heavily on the
"cybergurus" who are advising Newt Gingrich on his journey into
cyberscpace, notably Alvin Toffler ("Future Shock," "The Third Wave,"
"Powershift," etc.) and George Gilder ("Beyond Wealth and Poverty,"
"Macrocosm," lots of essays on the Net).

As it happens, I spent some time talking to Alvin and Heidi Toffler at
an interview last Friday in L.A.--they were being interviewed before
and after me. Not enough time to really get into issues, and of course
they did most of the talking (Heidi is especially opinionated, and had
just been in a highly publicized battle with newage guru Arianne
Huffington, spacey wife of losing candiate in California, Michael H.).

Anyway, we talked about John Brunner (as you all know, Brunner's
seminal "The Shockwave Rider," was inspired by "Future Shock") and his
ideas. (And we all agreed that "Stand on Zanzibar" was his crowning
achievement...even Shalmaneser admitted "Christ, what an imagination
he's got.")

Tidbits:

* on digital cash: Heidi: "Oh, we're for it! Did you hear what I just
told the interviewer?" (I didn't, as I was in the adjacent room. Later
comments lead me to believe that neither of the Tofflers has a clear
idea of what's going to happen with digital cash and crypto anarchy.)

* on the NSA and the t-shirt I showed them ("Cypherpunks: putting the
NSA out of business"): "Oh, no, we need a strong NSA now more than
ever!"

(What else would I expect? They view the NSA as the main bastion
against terrorists plotting to blow up the World Trade Center. Alvin
was generally more reserved and thoughtful. When I pointed out that
the very hotel room we were in could be used to plot crimes, even
nuclear terrorism, and that the solution to stop this would have to be
an Orwellian regime of continuous monitoring, Alvin nodded
thoughtfully, but Heidi just sniffed. I mention this to give a flavor,
just a whiff, of what senior advisors to the most influential man in
America are thinking.)

* I gave Alvin a copy of my "Crypto Anarchy and Virtual Communities"
paper.

* My interview was pretty disappointing, by the way. Lots of sitting
around, delays in getting my laptop hooked up to Netcom (outside calls
had to be unblocked). The interviewer wanted memorable, quotable stuff
from me, but I felt constricted sitting around and being expected to
spout on cue. Maybe they'll get a few minutes of usable stuff....

(Print media is so much better. An interviewer can let the tape
recorder run for hours, can edit the containing material of a quote,
and can thus produce clear, coherent quotes. A video interview is more
constrained in lots of ways, and offending gestures or rambling
interjections cannot be easily edited out. As one example, at one
point I naturally (to me at least) said something about "As we just
saw...." Well, this made this quote unusable. And so it goes.)

I was generally unhappy with the whole thing. Four hours to get there,
two hours spend waiting around, an hour to resolve problems, an hour
under the camera lights (being told not to move, to "use the mouse,"
to "tell us why cryptography is important," etc.), and five hours to
get home. All for a few minutes at most on a t.v. show.

Oh, the show is the BBC's "Horizons" science series, which may also
get sold to U.S. outlets, etc. I think the title will be "The
Information Bomb," and features segments on information warfare, a la
Winn Schwartau's views, the Tofflers, some military planners,
and--maybe--me.

I don't have high hopes for my segment.

--Tim May

-- 
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
tcmay@netcom.com       | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
                       | knowledge, reputations, information markets, 
W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA  | black markets, collapse of governments.
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