Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1998 13:07:15 -0700 (PDT)
From: oconnell-AT-oz.net (Mark O'Connell)
Subject: Re: ICQ


>but it's physicality will
>crumple away at the speed of the technological development. In the
>end, the vegetative body, wrapped in a data-suit, will be sealed
>behind concrete walls keeping the chaos of the 'real' world at a
>pleasant distance.

gosh, that sounds just like heaven! Bury the dead physical body under a
slab of stone and play eternally, freely, beautifully, (did I say
Joyously?), amongst all the angels.  Or maybe it's more like astral travel,
or rebirthing, or past lives, or...   Better living through engineering,
that's what I always say.

>And there is really no need to lament this development,

Lament?  Are you kidding?!?  If we could bottle this and sell it we'd make
a killing!

>as certain
>conservative romantics tend to do. All social constructs in the
>'real' world such as love, friendship, family have reached such a
>degree of artificiality (transparency or evilness, according to
>Baudrillard) that we would all be better off without them.

You really are a sentimentalist, aren't you?

>On the
>Net, virtual friendship, virtual love, even virtual political
>antagonism, already flourishes to such a degree that it is hard not
>to be optimist (for those who have access, that is).

hallelujah-

I'm pretty sure that Neuromancer was written on a manual typewriter.

Mark

Mark O'Connell
oconnell-AT-oz.net