From: autodesk!robertj@uunet.uu.net (Young Rob Jellinghaus)
Subject: Re: Review of Rheingold's _Virtual_Reality_
Date: 22 Dec 91 21:47:22 GMT
Organization: Autodesk Inc., Sausalito CA, USA



In article <1991Dec21.193953.9305@milton.u.washington.edu> astearns@reed.edu 
(Alan Stearns) writes:

>If virtual reality technology bears fruit, an emphasis
>on immediate, interactive communication may further dampen our imaginative use
>of communicative acts where the interaction is between the creator and the
>medium, such as writing, painting, and composing.  Perhaps their interactive
>analogs of conversing, presenting, and singing are enough of a replacement,
>but just as we are losing calligraphy, the new technology might mothball
>types of artistry that we all currently enjoy and value. 

Well, I see plenty of writers, artists, and composers around today.  The
artistic fields you seem worried about have not suffered from the new
technologies.  

It is true that fewer people handwrite letters now.  I am personally
one of the script-disadvantaged people you describe, as well as a hope-
less email addict.

Yet do I regret the loss of my handwriting style?  Not really.  For
me, my scriptive style is not something I _want_ to expend lots of
effort on!  The new media have given me a more convenient way to do
what I want to do--communicate.  I view these new possibilities as
liberating; they let me do what I want to do more easily.

And if you think that there is no craft to writing email well, you
haven't been on the net a very long time.  I know I have gotten more
writing practice by posting than I ever would have otherwise.

I would bet that most of the painters and writers out there would say
they would rather be able to make a phone call at will rather than
being restricted to sending an envelope by the afternoon mail.  They,
too, enjoy being able to concentrate on what they do--paint or write.

Are art museums going under because of TV?  Have all the good writers
become public speakers?  New media create _choices_... and sometimes
make entirely _new_ forms of art possible!


Rob Jellinghaus                 | "Next time you see a lie being spread or
Autodesk, Inc.                  |  a bad decision being made out of sheer
robertj@Autodesk.COM            |  ignorance, pause, and think of hypertext."
{decwrl,uunet}!autodesk!robertj |    -- K. Eric Drexler, _Engines of Creation_