Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id NAA21388 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 21 May 2002 13:46:35 +0100 Subject: RE: Significance of "As We May Think" Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 08:39:36 -0400 x-sender: wsmith1@camail.harvard.edu x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas Est Veritas From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: "memetics list" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Message-Id: <20020521124024.6A1231FD51@camail.harvard.edu> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On 05/21/02 07:44, Vincent Campbell said this-
Thanks, Vincent- lots of stuff in reply on my other list as well-
>Part of the problem lies in the large number of people, over a long period
>of time being involved in the conceptual and operational stages of
>developing the internet.
- this sort of development, of any technology, is very usual. We can't,
really, point to any one 'inventor' of television, or of the automobile,
or even of the french fry.... But we like to tag one name onto things,
and so we have Victor and Ford and McDonald, or did, until the
japanese....
The internet, of course, is just this sort of technology, and the
'conception' of linking sources goes back to language itself. Hypertext
is a multiculturalism of sources in a free society of their own. The
translation barrier is being crossed- it is not far away from being
built-in to all browsers.
I know, way back when I was a kid, I wanted some way to simply reach up
and grab a book if I read its title in a bibliography, or, I wanted to
'blink' on a foreign phrase and see it rendered into english, or,
somehow, simply reach up and have the dictionary in front of me. So,
wishes have become horses with the Web.
However, hypertext, even lowly hypertext, is a programming language, and,
yes, links are programmed destinations. The freethinker is still left
without a map in such places, and must, somehow, trek off alone, as
always, into wildernesses. There are no hyperlinks to the unknown.
- Wade
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