Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!lll-winken!telecom-request From: peterm@rwing.uucp (Peter Marshall) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Into the Telecosm Message-ID: Date: 28 Mar 91 16:51:44 GMT Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 18 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 254, Message 8 of 8 This George Gilder article is interesting and useful; for example, as it points to the upcoming NTIA report on their infrastructure study. On the other hand, it is an all-too-typical example of this sort of writing on technology topics, and of a very common perspective on same. As such, its not-so underlying assumptions are those of a garden variety technological determinism. There is a myopia here that is also typical of the approach to such topics regularly evidenced by the telecom industry and NTIA itself. For example, we have here the positing of a "communications crisis," identification of *the* problem as "regulation," and a rhetoric suggestive of telco press releases. In context, the Gilder article really isn't anything to write home about. Peter Marshall