Dear Salon,

You didn't do David Brin any favors by letting stand his weird punctuation and portentous sentence fragments. I gave up after the first page, and I'll read just about any goofy prognostication about the Internet. Maybe I am a crank (and I admit to being an English professor and a professional editor), but my point is that Salon usually does a lot better than this.

So, in that spirit, I hope you will keep up the good work.

Cheers,

David Robinson

The voxel (or volume pixel) has been around for a while, threatening to turn our placid world into a virtual reality wonderland. Instead, we have better weather maps.

Sure, maybe some people want to find better friends, better data and better sex online...but why not just "go to the barbeque" in person?

reading this article! It's the first time I've had to consult a dictionary in a while, and I had the answer in the time it took me to type it out with a world of information and knowledge at my fingertips. It's what I look for on the web, mostly.

Thanks for giving me some other things to think about, David Brin.

...Pohl & Kornbluth (the greatest double by-line in the history of SF, for my money [sorry, Jerry & Larry]) didn't write "marching morons" it was C.M. Kornbluth alone who wrote it. I used to think--in my boyhood wisdom--that it was Kornbluth who was the stronger of the partnership but SF literary history has proven me wrong. Kornbluth alone can't match up to Pohl's oeuvre--and from the SlaveShip compilation to Gateway and his City Tales Pohl overshadows Cyril's longer efforts, alone with his Syndic, and with others besides Pohl, see, Gunner Cade, with the great chronicler of two eras of SF, Judith Merrill. Kornbluth's shorter pieces are jewels-"'Morons" being a prime example along with "Two Dooms," of course, but Pohl, who got short shrift early on through "Space Merchants" "Search the Sky" "Wolfbane" and the very much overlooked "Gladiator-at-Law" all the way to "A Gentle Dying" was the heavy hitter in that partnership.

I just think it would be cool

And super groovy

If I could go out to see

Just a straight up movie

Where the gals and guys

Are not all done up CGIwise

And don't comprise

The cast of characters

That are supposed to thrill me with surprise

NOT AT ALL -- BECAUSE WHEN SUPPOSED INDEPENDENT NEWS AGENCIES GET A HOLD OF REAL NEWS -- DON'T REPORT IT -- JUST LIKE THE ZOMBIFIED BRAIN-DEAD MEDIA OUTLETS WHO ARE TOLD WHAT TO SAY & WHEN TO SAY IT ='s SOME "FREEDOM OF SPEECH" AMERICA CLAIMS TO PROTECT & PROFESS TO POSSESS & HAVE + WHO HAVE ANOINTED THE FEDERAL U.S. GOVT. AS THE "OFFICIAL TRUTH-TELLER" FOR THE MEDIA TO GET CONFIRMATION OF ANY SUCH STORIES -- WHEN THE U.S. GOVT. HAS BEEN LYING TO ITS' CITIZENS / THE MEDIA & THE WORLD NOW FOR DECADES ON END...

YOU SEE IF THE GOVT. DOES NOT WANT THE TRUTH TO GET OUT & IT DOES NOT CONFIRM THE STORY -- DOES THAT MAKE IT THE TRUTH OR MORE SO IT IS A POTENTIAL COVER-UP FOR SOME SERIOUS CRIMES THAT IT MAY BE COMMITTING OR IT ALREADY HAVE COMMITTED...

THE PEOPLE IN ALL MEDIA HAVE TO REMEMBER THESE 2 KEY POINTS:

1 - THE FEDERAL GOVT. IS ONLY USING YOU UNTIL YOU'RE NO LONGER NEEDED OR YOU HAVE LOST THEIR WORTH -- READ E.O. 13083 OR THE CURRENT N.S.P.D. #51 AS IT EXPLAINS THAT ALL COMMUNICATIONS WILL BE IN FEDERAL CONTROL AT THE EVENT OF ANY REAL / PERCEIVED

OR IMAGINED/IMAGINARY TERRORISTIC / CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE / MARTIAL LAW TYPE SCENARIOS THAT MAY OCCUR OR EVEN BE STAGED...

2 - THERE ARE 2 SIDES TO EVERY STORY & THE U.S. FEDERAL GOVT. USUALLY DOESN'T TELL THE AMERICAN PEOPLE / THE WORLD THE TRUTH MOST OF THE TIME...

SO WITH SAID -- NO THE INTERNET IS NOT MAKING US EVOLVE LIKE IT

SHOULD WITH REPORTING THE TRUTH WHERE THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA JUMPED INTO BED WITH THE FEDERAL GOVT. WHICH ABANDONED THEIR ROLE AS A 4TH BRANCH OF GOVT. + I THOUGHT THE INTERNET WOULD HELP ME GET MY STORY OUT WHICH HAPPENED TO MAKE A LOT OF FEDERAL GOVT. WORKERS CONSPIRE & COMMIT TREASON BY DENYING & THEN RELEASING A MOST WANTED TERRORIST WHO WAS CAPTURED & WAS UNDER A U.S. FEDERAL INDICTMENT -- BECAUSE OF WHY ='s FILL IN THE BLANKS...

BLAME IT ON THE PATRIOT ACT OR THEY DID NOT WANT TO PAY THE CONSTITUTIONALLY BOUND GUARANTEED REWARDS / BOUNTIES OR MEMBERS OF THE U.S. GOVT. WERE SECRETLY WORKING WITH THE TERRORISTS SO THE AMERICAN CITIZENS RIGHTS COULD SLOWLY BE TAKEN AWAY FROM THEM...

SO TREASON & VIOLATING THE R.I.C.O. ACT ARE THE DAILY CRIMES BEING COMMITTED IN WASHINGTON D.C. TODAY & BY MANY OF THOSE --

"WE THE PEOPLE" HAVE ELECTED INTO OFFICE -- SO AS YOU CAN IMAGINE THERE ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO STILL HAVE THEIR SECURITY

CLEARANCES AS WELL AS SWARMS OF LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL AT ALL LEVELS WHO KNOW ABOUT THIS -- THAT STILL POSSESS THEIR BADGE & GUN --- SO PLEASE DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPED-UP BULLSHIT THAT THE U.S. FEDERAL GOVT. / THE MEDIA WHORE INDUSTRY SHOVES DOWN YOUR THROATS EVERYDAY AS "BREAKING NEWS" OR AS "NEWS" THAT IS THE MOST MEANINGFUL NEWS THEY CAN REPORT -- WHILE THEY DODGE ALL OF THE REAL SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES WHICH REALLY MATTER...

Do Salon writers even bother to think about what they are writing? Do they bother to acquaint themselves with even the most elementary definitions of the words they use?

Evidently not. Yeah we're evolving.

From the cannon ball

To the H-bomb

We've got that killer thing

Goin' on strong...

As someone else said, great vocabulary workout, Mr. Brin. Thanks. For those who want a Cliff Notes version or can't follow all the (perhaps gratuitous) references, that's what Wikipedia is for.

The key point echoes what I've said since 2001: The number one survival skill in the 21st century will be to become a good filter. Or, as amended by Shirky in personal conversation, to *know* a good filter. This is the true "exaflood"

Brin's comment that the Internet and social networks have only half of what we need is spot on. I call what the market mechanism he refers to "expert networks", and they are forming now. If we can find a way to monetize them that formation will accelerate and become the market Brin imagines.

Of course, it should not be surprising that most of the stuff on the Internet is dross. As Sturgeon wrote, "90% of everything is crap." Always has been, always will. On the other hand, I do agree with the grouches that the couch potatoes may still overrun us.

Our problem is that the sum total of intelligence on the planet seems to be a constant, and the population keeps increasing... :-)