Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!think.com!mintaka!spdcc!tauxersvilli!alphalpha!nazgul
From: nazgul@alphalpha.com (Kee Hinckley)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: The city of mind, cyberpunks, and privacy
Message-ID: <1991Jan5.182759.11714@alphalpha.com>
Date: 5 Jan 91 18:27:59 GMT
References: <5201@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> <13765@milton.u.washington.edu>
Organization: asi
Lines: 28

In article <13765@milton.u.washington.edu> cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson) writes:
>
>Barlow lives in Wyoming.  It affects the way one sees things.  Mountain
>View is another consciousness.  I appreciate the well-thought out critique.
>However, the "frontier" is yet another consciousness...the American 
>metaphor for new places.  A melding of concepts would be appropriate.
>EFF does a pretty good job, since Mitch Kapor is definitely a city type.

Metaphors can be dangerous (check out the recent article floating around
concerning metaphors of war and our relationship with Iraq).  What
the City metaphor misses completely, and the Frontier metaphor only gets
to a limited extent is the sense of _community_ on the net.  It's the
kind of thing where a complete stranger comes up and asks you a favor
(last night it was a phone call asking for a Usenet feed) and you don't
think twice about helping out.  That actually probably fits well into
the real Frontier, but most people's concept of it has been tainted by
too many westerns.

Personally, I always think of it as the Electronic Freedom Foundation.

-- 
Alfalfa Software, Inc.		|	motif-request@alfalfa.com
nazgul@alfalfa.com		|-----------------------------------
617/646-7703 (voice/fax)	|	Proline BBS: 617/641-3722

I'm not sure which upsets me more; that people are so unwilling to accept
responsibility for their own actions, or that they are so eager to regulate
everyone else's.