165 lines
8.3 KiB
Plaintext
165 lines
8.3 KiB
Plaintext
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The following article is from the Review Section of the New
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York Times of Sunday 26 August l990.
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It is headed:
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PROGRAMMED FOR LIFE AND DEATH, written by John Markoff.
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This spring a California man symbolically took his life by
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using a computer program to seek out and destroy the
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contributions he had made over to the years to a continuing
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electronic conversation run by a computer group called the
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Well. Several weeks later, he followed this "virtual"
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suicide by killing himself in the real world.
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Blair Newman had been one of the most active members of the
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Well, a five-year-old electronic community that is operated
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out of the Whole Earth Review, a publisher in Sausalito,
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Calif., with roots in the l960's counterculture. Several
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thousand people in the Bay Area regularly call up the Well
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for an electronics typewritten chat, and they frequently meet
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face to face in more conventional gatherings.
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Mr Newman, a 43-year-old veteran of the personal computer
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industry, was such an enthusiastic-- some would say
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obsessive--user of the Well that many of his friends knew
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him only electronically. They describe him as a flamboyant
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insomniac who could be counted on for stimulating and sometime
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infuriating late-night conversation. But he was also known
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for bouts of depression.
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After his simulated suicide in May, many members of the
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community dispatched angry messages complaining that they
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had been wronged. Some believed Mr Newman's writing, stored
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on a computer disk, were the property of the community and
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not his to destroy.
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It was after this dispute that Mr Newman took his life.
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"For him to be done in the virtual world was to be done--
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period," said John Perry Barlow, a participant in the group
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who is a lyricist for the Grateful Dead.
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Some may take Mr Newman's story as that of a disturbed
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computer addict who used technology to withdraw from the
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world. But others see the experience in a different light, as
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a glimpse of a future in which computers change the way
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people live and work, and ultimately the way they die.
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In recent years computer networks have been emerging as a new
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kind of community unlimited by geography. While members can
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be spread across the world, the ease of communication can
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engender an intimacy more akin to a small 19th-century
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village than a 20th-century suburb.
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Some sociologists see a dark side to all this.
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"There is a notion of avoiding the her-and-now society," said
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Todd Gitlin, a sociologist at the University of California at
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Berkley."Part of what's scary is that there is a blankness in
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her-and-now society that leads people to prefer these virtual
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communities."
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But others see the networks as a way to overcome the forced
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anonymity of modern life. While the telephone shrank the
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world by permitting instantaneous one-to-one contact, and
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while radio and television have served as a one-way medium to
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broadcast information to millions, the computer has become a
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vehicle that allows hundreds of people of like values and
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interests to come together in small groups.
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Much of what has taken place was foreshadowed in a number of
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science fiction novels written in the last 15 years. In his
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1981 novel "True Names" -- which has a small but devoted
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following among network enthusiasts--Vernor Vinge describes a
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fictional world in which a small computer underground
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illicitly occupies parts of a powerful global network. In the
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story, technology has become so advanced that it is possible
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to simulate highly realistic fantasy worlds and move about
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and interact with people who may be located thousands of
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miles away.
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A computer-science graduate student has recently created a
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less elaborate simulated universe called Tinymud, which
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exists within a nationwide computer network called Internet.
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A program permits dozens of people connected to the network
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through personal computers or work stations to create
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simulated personas and use them to explore a fantasy world
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that the players themselves recreate.
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Similasr to role-playing games lke Dungeons & Dragons, the
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game lacks the dazzling graphics associated with Mr Vinge's
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story. Tinymud's universe consists entirely of written
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descriptions, and wandering through it is like reading a
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novel-- or like being a character in one. And in a meta-
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fictional twist, each player can also play author, adding
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new regions for other players to explore.
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In recent months the game has become a fad on college
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campuses. By signing on to the network, one can travel
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through an interactive text filled with details of the
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geography of the Boston area, or electronically visit the
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Yale University campus.
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In addition to shrinking distances and stretching
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imaginations, computer networks also provide anonymity. Such
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an environment can lead to behavior that would not be readily
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tolerated in real life. Recently, in a posting on a computer
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network, a Wesleyan University student complained about
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sexual harassment in the Tinymud game.
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"Just because my character is female and has a vaguely
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attractive description, and just because I choose to flirt
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with some people, some jerk thinks my sexuality is public
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property," the student wrote. (It is not known whether the
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character's creator was male or female.)
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Some day electronic communities could be futuristic, high-tech
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paradises. But for now they function more as primitive
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societies, still groping for social codes.
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Mr Barlow, the lyricist, said he once believed that computer
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conferences would never become real communities until they
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could address sex and death in ritual terms.
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"Marriages and funerals are the binding ceremonies in real
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towns," he said, "but they have a hard time happening
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among the disembodied.
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In the case of Mr Newman, his friends have tried to assuage
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their grief what may be the first electronic funeral.
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Shortly after his death, they created a new computer file
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including all of his old writings, which it turns out, had
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been saved on a backup disk. They have also compiled a
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eulogy, hundreds of pages of testimonials available on the
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system. Included is this observation from Mitchell D. Kapor
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the founder of the Lotus Development Corporation and now
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chairman of On Technology.
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"He was a unique character, and perhaps the limitations of
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space and time were just too much for someone with so many
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ideas and inspirations."
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