The end is Nil. That's the National In- formation Infrastructure, of course, the amorphous web-to-be that has become an inkblot test of the na- tional psyche. Some proponents dream of a 24-hour global symposium combining the best of Madame de Stael and Mortimer Adler, while skeptics fear a future of conference calls with the likes of John Wayne Gacy and Joseph Goebbels. Some fear a surveillance machine of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Inter- nal Revenue Service, others a witches' sabbath...
he coming of the information super-
concerns may be, such a neo-Luddite view of
highway, or, more modestly, the
the NII seems beyond the pale of serious con-
National Information Infrastructure
sideration. As a people we are wont to explore
(Nil), has reanimated America's
the paths along wluc11 our desire leads us, and
running debate about the vices and virtues of
it seems virtually foreordained that our desire...
Eric S. Raymond. There, among the inscrutable definitions of inscrutable terms sucli as "pessimizing compiler" and "sandbender," one learns tliat to gweep is "to liack, usually at night," and tliat to liack is, among otlier things, "to work 011 sometliing (typically a program)." One definition seems to distill tlie essence of liacker existence:
ha ha only serious [from SF fandom, orig. as mutation of HHOK, 'Ha Ha Only Kid- ding'] A phrase (often seen abbreviated a...
GEORGE MOFFETT
Despite su~rising reductions in birth rates in many parts of the world, more than 90 million people are being added to the Earth each year. World popula- tion is now approaching six billion, up from only three billion in 1960. During the next 20 years, it could increase as much as 40 percent, to almost eight billion people, or by less than 30 percent, to about 7.2 billion. The difference will depend in pad upon decisions that are made by the United Nations International Conference...
Despite su~rising reductions in birth rates in many parts of the world, more than 90 million people are being added to the Earth each year. World popula- tion is now approaching six billion, up from only three billion in 1960. During the next 20 years, it could increase by as much as 40 percent, to almost eight billion people, or by less than 30 percent, to about 7.2 billion. The difference will depend in pad upon decisions that are made by the United Nations International Conference on Population...
fter the revolutions of 1989 tions on the remnants of Soviet colonialism.
brought down communism in This oversight is puzzling, if not tragic, be-
Eastern Europe, many of the po- cause Hamilton was perhaps the most practi-
litical and intellectual leaders of cal nation builder among the Founding Fa- the emerging democracies turned for thers. Thanks largely to his vision guidance to the United States. and energy, the United States Americans of all political per- became what it is today: a suasions...
dpdf-doc>
Language
on the
Verge
Nervous
Breakdown
ATOLY AIMAN
An Englishman in Moscow, by K. Malevich
Shortages of all kinds contribute to Russia's turmoil today, but none is more damaging than the dearth of meaningful language. Anatoly Naiman here tells how decades of totalitarian rule have enfeebled language, making political discussion next to impossible and paving the way for the ascent of extremists.
t happened in Moscow sometime in the his own. Naturally, lus application was t...