 ______________ More About: Ken Auletta, "The Reeducation of Michael Kinsley," The New Yorker, 5/13/96 "Slate Is Finally Not Blank," WebSavvy's Web Watch, 6/23/96 ______________ "Nicholas Negroponte: Managing in a Wired, Wired World" "Memo to CEO: How to Get a Life ... Online," Nicholas Negroponte _______________ Kim Polese "Java Braintrust Tells All," SunWorld Online "Kim Polese Talks Java," Java World 4/1996 "Hot Company, Cool Code," Forbes 11/18/96 _______________ Jaron Lanier's Home Page "Telephone Interview with Jaron Lanier by Raphael Elig," in Real Audio, 10/94 "Der aus der Wüste kam," Verlag Heinz Heise _______________ Mary Catherine Bateson _______________ Christopher Janney "New York Subway to Sing," 3/27/96 _______________ Slate "Being Digital," Random House (Vintage), 1996 Marimba MIT Media Lab |
Moderated by Michael Kinsley A presentation of "Connecticut Forum," Horace Bushnell Memorial Hall Hartford, Connecticut, January 30, 1997 Nicholas Negroponte, founder and Director of the MIT Media Lab and author of "Being Digital," dapper in business suit, striped shirt and bright tie, took Kinsley's first question, about current "downsides" to cyberspace. Negroponte immediately identified security, pointing to the need for tools to provide authentication of identities and privacy of communications on the Net. Kim Polese, CEO of Marimba and former head of the Java product team at Sun Microsystems sat between Kinsley and Negroponte, her signature curls and dimpled smile crowning her dark, tailored jacket, turtleneck, fitted pants and chunky pumps, all flattering her dancer's limbs. She identified paranoia about pornography on the Net and a generalized anxiety about technology as downsides to the development of cyberspace. Polese said that computers need to be made easier to use, more like consumer devices like the TV. Jaron Lanier, author, musician, founder of VPL Research, Inc. and coiner of the term "Virtual Reality," was the image of a self-actualizing artist, his brown dreadlocks, gnomish beard and loose-fitting dark tunic demonstrating a look once described as that of a "Rasta-Hobbit." Lanier worried that the ability to use cyberspace tools to filter out all but a few pre-selected sources of news and opinion could lead to an unfortunate "balkanization" of culture. Mary Catherine Bateson, author, anthropologist and daughter of Margaret Meade, was relaxed in a flowing, softly printed gown and shawl with soft shoes. Her carefully chosen words glided forth in a measured cadence. She saw downsides to come from unforseen and unintended consequences, just as the popularization of the automobile led to traffic jams and smog. Christopher Janney, an interactive sound architect whose installations are already in Rome, Washington, Miami, and in the subways of Boston, Paris and New York, was urbane in jacket and tie, and cited the "seductive nature" of cyberspace as one downside. In response to queries about their current work, Negroponte spoke of the Media Lab's current experiments in digital shoes, in which chips would be powered by the motion of walking and communicate with wearable components using the body itself as a signal conductor. Polese briefly explained Marimba's integration of Java applications with "push technology" to simplify the delivery of software and information over the Web. Bateson and Negroponte agreed that those whom Negroponte called the "digital homeless" are less a result of economic status than of a generation gap, separating children raised with computers from people born too early to grow up comfortable in cyberspace. Bateson drew on her anthropological foundations to offer that intergenerational rifts may result from the increasing ability of children to do things with technology about which their parents are clueless. Negroponte shared a personal story of his mother, who last summer returned home alone from the hospital before dawn and chose email as the medium to ease the emotional challenge of informing her far-flung family of the sudden passing of his father. He went on to cite increasing instances of seniors whose scope of life has been significantly enlarged by their ability to "get out" in cyberspace, despite the mobility limitations of age and declining health. The media expert and the anthropologist seemed to agree that the middle age group, "born too early and now too busy" to develop a familiarity with computers, will face the biggest personal disadvantages in cyberspace, relative to children and elders, but that gap will close with time. Answering an audience question, Lanier shared a concern over the growing power of Microsoft, which he saw as having the sort of power that "medieval Popes" would envy. Lanier had light-hearted but unflattering words for Microsoft's products, which he "won't allow in his home." All but the moderator (who is provided with a PC by his employer Microsoft) admitted to packing a Powerbook as their personal computer. Negroponte and Polese both saw less hazard from Microsoft's growing economic power, seeing the Net as containing new solutions that may render less essential the software products from Redmond, WA. Polese dismissed the sniping between Microsoft and Netscape as "silly" in light of all the room for many diverse products to develop in parallel. Polese also pointed to the increasing inability of central governments, like those in Yugoslavia and China, to stop communication between their citizens and the rest of the world, as an example of how she saw the Net breaking down national sovereignty and ignoring international borders. Bateson and Negroponte agreed, noting that the Net is changing the traditional views of centralized control of publication. "The Net is controllable only at the periphery" said Negroponte, asserting that centralized censorship of the Net is simply "not do-able." The most underappreciated Net development? "Digital money" according to Negroponte. Not online banking and conventional electronic commerce, which simply is another way to deal with the transfer of conventional stores of wealth, but the creation and exchange of new forms of value actually stored in "smart cards" from which are taken "micropayments" in exchange for goods and services. Negroponte pointed to developments in this field by Cybercash and other similar new companies in development as "the thing most folks are missing." The occupations most imperiled by cyberspace developments? Negroponte and Lanier both agreed without hesitation. "Anyone with the word 'agent' or 'broker' in their job description," said Negroponte. "Middlemen," echoed Lanier. The panelists all agreed on the high value of meeting and talking in person, engaging all five senses in their conversation, despite the increasing utility of electronic communication. Lanier forecast that developments in Virtual Reality would eventually enable such "face to face" meetings to be realized virtually, in cyberspace, and that someday people would be able to "share their dreams." The session closed with Negroponte painting for the audience the pleasing vision of a group of interesting people (perhaps like themselves) gathering in virtual reality to share together an exciting and pleasurable dream. This episode of Connecticut Forum occurred face to face before a live audience on Thursday, January 30 at Horace Bushnell Memorial Hall in Hartford, Connecticut. Copyright 1997 by
Douglas Simpson, Wethersfield, CT |
|
The Author is a Member of |
  Get your own Free Home Page |
|
All rights reserved.
For technical issues, or for permission to link this to a commercial site,
please email: doug.simpson@snet.net