24fps

[LBernier at tribune.com]

Jan Klimkowski writes


>  ...For Stewart Brand, the invention of the personal 
>computer (be it Apple or other) was a direct counter to the nightmare of Big 
>Brother mainframes determining every aspect of our lives.  And, I do find 
>something  very appealing in that willingness to look at a technology and 
>strive to find a version of it (the invididual computer connected to the 
>world) that gives us "power" of one sort or another (or diminishes Their 
>power over us).

Please forgive a somewhat ignorant, and also rather tangential question,
but exactly how does Mr. Brand's see the mainframe as "Big Brother"?
Yes, they're not particularly easy to use, yes access is restricted (to
those who won't muck up the works, for the most part) but I don't see that
there is anything inherently EEEVIL about them.

AND, believing that a PC hooked up to the internet gives you any kind of
power at all in terms of individual vs. the corporation or individual
vs. the super-computer is, IMHO, simply naive.  Information isn't instantly
accessible just because you've got a modem and and a nifty graphical
operating system.


A curious Jean Bernier.