Статьи 5 семестр / _The immaterial world 2
.docstraight. The Arpanet was not started to ensure strategic communications in case of nuclear war—a common misim-pression—but rather to link university computers and researchers to assist them in conducting basic research on computers and on communication nets and to use these networked computers for basic research. We were certainly aware of potential national security applications for the Arpanet, but efforts to use the technology toward those ends came much later.
Deep questions about the long-term significance of "being digital" must be raised. The book focuses on the mind that is wired but does not really say much about what this life will be like. Science-fiction writers have, of course, speculatively explored the life of a creature that is mostly brain, and perhaps we are beginning to see dimly a reality of this kind emerging. Such a possible future implicitly asks some fundamental question about life. To be sure, the life of the mind is the great identifier of humans, and it will be substantially aided by digital technology. But we might ask, "Is this all there is?" Where is the outdoor life, the wind in the hair, the exertion and exhilaration of living with the elements? Not much is said of the physical body that must balance the brain. Nor is there much about what could undermine Negroponte's exciting vision, such as neo-Luddite attacks, fundamentalist religious movements and, perhaps most dangerous, the victory of boredom over everything else.
Issues of privacy also are scarcely mentioned, and questions of intellectual property and its future role are gone over all too quickly. Yet these problems may slow, or even abort, the growth of the Net-based digital world much more than technical problems or questions of real utility. Minor queries must also be raised. Do we really want holographic assistants on our desks? All examples I have seen of electronic personalities rapidly outstay their welcome. It will be some time, I think, before artifacts will have personalities as interesting as those of the people we care about.
Yet overall, Being Digital is an excellent introduction for the interested layperson. It will make all readers think more deeply about life in the computerized age, although it will undoubtedly disappoint some readers who want more. Those inquisitive souls will just have to wait for more of the author's monthly pronouncements.
CHARLES HERZFELD is a computer consultant in Silver Spring, Md. From 1961 to 1967 he worked at the Advanced Research Projects Agency.
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