------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 94 20:18 EST From: ktark%src4src@IMAGEEK.YORK.CUNY.EDU(Karl Tarhk) Subject: File 4--A Guide to Technological Disasters to Come A GUIDE TO TECHNOLOGICAL DISASTERS TO COME. by Kohntark (ktark@src4src.linet.org) Technical Editor of CRYPT magazine. There are millions of words wasted in endless discussion about what a wonderful world this will be once the technological marvels to come take over, about how interconnected humanity will become once the Data Highway is in place and we have all the gizmos brought to you by the world's leading companies and most brilliant minds, about how we will have endless sources of information at our fingertips, about how easy and enjoyable life will be..in other words nothing short of the second coming of Jesus (or your favourite messiah for all of you non-Catholic types). I see the AT&T advertisements asking things like "Have you ever sent someone a fax from the beach?", "Have you ever borrowed a book from thousands of miles away?" "Have you ever paid a toll without slowing down?", "Have you ever tucked your kid in from a phone booth?" (!!!) and stating assuredly: "YOU WILL" These advertisements promise interactive marvels that will allow you to see where the hell you are when you are driving your car, to send faxes while you are on the beach or to pick your seats for a concert interactively, all this with astounding 3d-views and graphics than not even the most expensive PC computers can produce, and yes, AT&T promises this will happen (they do not dare say how soon!); while more than half of the world's population lives in increasing poverty levels and can barely afford a TV set! Every month I see the new Multimedia products and promises about real time video and other 'it-looks-great-in-reviews products', while some of us still wait for a decent computer operating system and the commercial acceptance of a computer programming language not created by idiots. I see news about revolutionary interactive TV and other wonders like 500 television channels and digital radio cable stations filled with everything for everyone. Yet most of the 30+ TV channels and endless radio stations are filled with garbage and infomercials now! But why not review a few facts relevant to the up and coming techno-revolution-in-the-making? -Most of America sits home and rots in front of an analog TV an average of five hours a day watching programs of high educational content like 'Geraldo,' 'Current Affair' or 'Hard Copy' while the FCC is still deciding the successor of our millenarian TV technology. -Most people still cannot even program a VCR, and according to a survey done by Dell: A majority of Americans are technologically disabled (read: _techno-wimps_). -America spends more money on its educational system than any other nation in the world yet most young Americans are functionally illiterate. -Most of the PhD's graduated by our universities are not American but of foreign origin: (Read: American students don't take advantage of their educational facilities) -Public Radio and Public Television, agencies which offer undoubtably the best variety and quality of educational and entertainment programs are far from striving, in fact they could be considered as dieing ideas in the face of technological marvels to come. -Recently, the National Science Foundation's ban on the commercial use of the Internet was over. To predict the future of the much-hyped techno-revolution all we have to do is to look back a few decades ago and see the changes that one technological landmark, television, has wrought. Has television, a possible source of endless educational materials, and tool to advance us in the right direction, brought all benefits to everyone? Hardly. Instead of a wonderful tool, it became another method for the corporate world to sell its products and agendas, another way for the government to spoon-feed its citizens with mindless, easy entertainment, while filtering out "dangerous" ideas and information while embedding hate for liberals and foreign ideas. History will repeat itself: The corporate world will rule the new "revolution." The usual fare of idiocy, sex and violence will take over all new media, and the users will remain as imbecilic as ever, while in the background pseudo-revolutionaries conduct make believe wars against the hand that feeds them, and corporate sponsored magazines bring unknowing fools the latest in irrelevant false techno-anarchists (read:hackers) in an entertaining manner. The mediums may change but the content will remain the same. =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ + END THIS FILE + +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+===+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=