[12400] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
RE: The internet will kill us
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Gary Bolles (via RadioMail))
Tue May 17 17:02:43 1994
Date: Tue, 17 May 1994 10:50:16 PDT
From: Gary Bolles (via RadioMail) <gbolles@radiomail.net>
Reply-To: gbolles@radiomail.net
To: com-priv@psi.com
I'd take this one step further: being Internetworked has changed a number of
things for a number of us who have been connected for some time, but it will be
quite some time before it changes much of anything for most of everybody else.
This cyber-saturated perspective is the electronic version of the Beltway
Syndrome, the D.C.-locked group of which we all speak so highly. The vast
majority of those already 'netted are the relatively technologically
unchallenged, people who probably at least know how to set the time on their
VCRs. Extrapolating what others will do with similar technology because we
extrapolate it from what we know - or even to be convinced that others want it
in the first place - is a dangerous kind of elitism.
gB
----- Forwarded Message
Date: Sun, 15 May 1994 00:24:23 -0400 (EDT)
>From: Doug Humphrey <digex@ss1.digex.net>
Subject: RE: The internet will kill us
To: "Tansin A. Darcos & Company" <0005066432@mcimail.com>
Cc: Tom Limoncelli <tom_limoncelli@warren.mentorg.com>, com priv
<com-priv@psi.com>
In some ways, I think that this "the internet will be the end of the
world" attitude springs from some sort of need to say that the net
is going to change EVERYTHING and alter EVERYTHING and that EVERYTHING
is going to be different... which is just not true, as far as I can
tell. I have been working with our law firm to help them get smart on
"the law and the internet" and it looks like there is no real "law and
the internet" out there; laws deal mainly with people, actions and intents.
Not the technology used. Some laws reference a particular technology
(the current popular "guns are evil" thing is producing technology
specific law) but most laws deal with the person, the act, the intent
(with intent to maim, with intent to kill, with a dangerous weapon, etc).
So, maybe there are big areas of life and the universe that the Internet
will not changes. Certainly price will still have to be backed up by
performance, and features, even over the Internet ;-)
Doug
