[12319] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
more convergence
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bob Smart)
Mon May 16 02:27:56 1994
To: com-priv@psi.com
Date: Mon, 16 May 1994 13:13:18 +1000
From: Bob Smart <smart@mel.dit.csiro.au>
The list of factors converging to promote the so-called Information
Superhighway might soon include medicine.
I've just read an article on the rise of antibiotic-resistant
bacteria. Now imagine what the emergence of a serious and resistant
disease bacteria would do to: teleconferencing vs business travel;
telecommuting vs going to work; network delivery of education vs
attending large educational institutions; computer shopping vs going
to the supermarket. Not to mention closed communities with guards on
the gates and electronic surveillance of the perimeter.
Well it's not a pretty thought, but we might survive such epidemics
better in this way than our ancestors coped during episodes of the
plague.
Bob Smart
