cheech

I was re-reading parts of Brian Enos diary-book, which is making me think I should re-read the whole thing. Im telling you, I feel my IQ increase when I read the damned thing! This passage stood out to me (keep in mind, this was written on March 23, 1995), a letter he was writing to a friend whod pontificated on technological possibilities on TV. In the first paragraph, Brian says how fun the show was, but this is the second paragraph:

But something struck me quite forcefully. On the one hand, there was Kevin eulogizing the technological revolution and what it meant in terms of empowerment and freedom. Yet at 9, straight after the program, was the news that a small bunch of nutters in Tokyo had put 2000 people in hospital. It struck me forcefully (again) that the more richly connected we make our world the more vulnerable we make it. Empowerment cuts both ways; as the complexity of things increases, so does the ability of an increasingly minute number of people to destabilize it. This, it strikes me, is the real limit on development- that we will accept the threat of terrorism as a limit on how complex we make things. So, the Utopian-techie vision of a richly connected future will not happen- not because we cant technically do it, but because we will recognize its vulnerability and shy away from it.

Also limiting for future growth is the huge monetary debt of using expensive weapons technology and huge groups of personnel in armed conflicts halfway around the world, of course.


In TV news- it has some off moments, as any comedy show does, and some moments better left undone, as any offensive comedy show does, but I think I can stand behind at least 75% of what Wonder Showzen does as being brilliant stuff, in its short run so far...