RE: His and Her Anarchies

["Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net>]

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."