> One of Sam's "I Think" topics talks about having the internet everywhere-- having it hooked up to the microwave so you can start dinner from your car, ping your socks, transmit a camera image of your front door to you in your office so you can let the plumber in to work on your pipes when you're not physically there, and much, much more. I read an article on this is some net magazine not too long ago that reveals this as not the witty, wild fantasy of our imaginative web guru, but a reality not too far in the future.

Yes, indeed... there was something on the Intel web site not too long ago (right after the introduction of the AnyPoint home networking stuff, I believe) about that sort of thing.

> What amazes me most, however, is that the author only mentioned privacy issues as an offhand remark, an afterthought, and only to say that there would be some privacy issues, of course.

Oh, my. There would be enough privacy issues to make me want to go live on an island in the middle of the pacific ocean... and don't be surprised if I do if it comes up.

But, on top of that, am I the only one who doesn't find the concept of linking *everything* together through the Internet at all appealing? I think there comes a point where technology becomes too invasive... and it comes way, way before you lose that sixth point of essence. Perhaps even before you lose the first.

I am an extremely low-tech person (I say posting this on my computer to an internet message forum). If there is a lower-tech alternative, I'll take it. After they computerized the card catalogue in my high school (back when I was *in* high school), I was the only person who continued to use the old card catalogue. That sort of thing.

To have everything connected through the internet may be a dream for some, but it would be a black nightmare for me, and not just because of Orwellian possibilities. That would mark the final point in our culture where we become inseparably linked with our devices... what would we do if the power went out? Lives would stop. People will grow too dependent on this new technology, and will be unable to function without it... sounds almost like a Vonnegut story, while we're on the subject of authors.

I do have more to say about this, but I'm not doing well at thinking coherently right now. Gimme a break - I'm sick.

Dar "Hey, paw; what come after two, paw?" ien