Re: "Too cheap to meter"

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 8:03 PM 5/18/96, Brad Dolan wrote:
>On Fri, 17 May 1996, Timothy C. May wrote:
>
>> Alan's irony is well-placed. The most egregious repetition of the "too
>> cheap to meter" nonsense is George Gilder's "dark fiber" vision...a vision
>> of "infinite bandwidth" to all users.
>>
>> Guess what? If Gilder's "dark fiber" is ever built, there are a lot of
>> folks who will "fill it" rather quickly. Canter and Siegel were just the
>> beginning. "Too cheap to meter" goes away pretty quickly.
>>
>> --Tim May
>
>
>The same George Gilder that is Newt's buddy?  And part-owner of Valujet?

I don't know about the ValuJet part, but the Newt part is right. George
Gilder is an interesting thinker, and has written a bunch of books and
articles on the implications of technology, microcircuitry, and networks.
One of his books was, for example, "Microcosm."

I'm sure a search of his name will produce an abundance of information.

My criticism of his "dark fiber" advocacy is that it smacks of the typical
"techno-Rapture" point of view, epitomized by the "too cheap too meter!"
gushings of the 1950s and the "nanotechnology will rebuild our bodies out
of diamond and we'll live forever" gushings of today.

Fiber optics is a Big Deal, make no mistake about it. But the notion that
the bandwidth will be so high that everyone can be hooked up to the same
"party line" (the core idea of the "dark fiber" thesis) and just drop stuff
in and pull stuff out...well, think of how such a channel can be flooded.
(So, is it really "free" or not? Obviously it can't be. If it is, I can
think of many who will choose to flood it, for their own reasons.)

--Tim May

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