Thursday, September 14, 2006

Contrary Brin: The REAL Road to 9/11...

1 comment:

John Powers said...

David Brin has a piece in Salon today (they've made the ad viewing even more onerous) Basic decrying that they don't teach Basic anymore.

"Web access for the poor would be great. But machines that kids out there can understand and program themselves? To those who shape our technical world, the notion remains not just inaccessible, but strangely inconceivable."

Tom Engelhardt reveals the real link between 9-11 and Iraq Englehardt

"As is often the case, under such lies and manipulations lurks a deeper truth. In this case, let's call it the truth of wish fulfillment. The link between 9/11 and Iraq is unfortunately all too real. The Bush administration made it so in the heat of the post-9/11 shock."

Jerry Fodor skewers Micheal Frayn Fodor He ends with a philosopher's joke which I wanted to send you, but the whole review is so funny, perhaps it's better to read in context.

And Radical Society has a great piece reconsidering Walter Lippmann Radical Society

"This neglect and censure is a shame, for lost with Lippmann is the knowledge of how politics works in an age of fantasy."

There's only so much time in the day, so links to longish articles are simply an invitation not an expectation. And I'm afraid the link between these articles and the link you posted to Contrary Brin is rather thin. Perhaps something along the lines of Vonnegut's warning: "Be careful what you pretend to be because you are what you pretend to be."

That's the dilemma anyway, and so I enjoyed Brin's complaint about kids not being able to tinker with Basic anymore. Not that I ever tinkered with Basic, I tend to relate to computers through superstitions, well, and relate to so many other things that way. But at least I agree with Brin that's a problem of some significance.