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Although there's something to be said for getting ahead, the new Navigator has more to do with getting away. And taking life's luxuries with you.
With up to 8,000 pounds of towing capacity Available Control -Trac 4WD with load-leveling suspension that lowers the vehicle for easier entry

ffi LINCOLN
And a 5.4L V-8 to escape civilization, Joneses and all (nothing against anyone named Jones). For information about this full-size luxury utility vehicle,
call toll-free 1 888 2Anywhere (1888 226-9943), visit our web site at www.lincolnvehicles.com or see an authorized Lincoln Navigator dealer.

Navigator from Lincoln. What a luxury [ ] should be.

.WORK THE WEB™
 THE GREAT INVISIBLE GUIDING
LISM HAS JUST
THE INTERNET
UPSIDE THE HEAD ~ NOW WHAT?

t: 0 M0 RE HYPE. No more jargon. No more paradigm sh itts.

Web has the potential to be a monumental economic force. But from a capitalist point of
0 kay? Everybody agrees the

view, the Internet has had about as much impact as the two-dollar bill. Why? For one thing,
security is lousy. For another, build ing interactive websites that are linked to corporate
databases (which is to say, useful information) takes forever. For still another, keeping
those websites updated with ti mely information costs a fortune. NO . Lotus Dom ino is not abou t

LOTU S DOMINO ~ FIXES ALL THIS . Lotus Domino is web server software based on
Lotus Notes" technology. It makes powerful, interactive websites easier to build . It lets stupid stuff on the Web.

people edit and manage the content on those websites using ordinary web browsers - which
means the people who have the information people need can make it available simply by
changing it themselves (th is is the way the Web should work, but until now, it hasn't).

It not only lets you control who gets into your system but also what they can see, and what
changes they can make. So you can let you r customers see one thing, and your management
another. You can let your finance department make changes to information your European YES. Lotus Domino is for doing serious
sales offices can only see.

Th is makes Domino a powerful tool for creating solutions that are customized to the needs
customers and employees.
~ of your business. To let employees, managers, contractors and suppliers all work
unesJ together over the Web. To help customers find the answers they need. To turn the
Web from a digital warehouse for stale jokes and silly photographs into a tool that businesses Lotus
can use to actual ly get th ings done. Log in . Find ou t. www . lotus.com/worktheweb Working Together'

for more inlormation, calll 800 828 7086, ell 0307. In Canada, call 1800 GO LOTUS. © 1997 lotus Development Corporation, 55 Cambridge Parkway, Cambridge, MA 02142. All rights reserved. Lotus, lotus Notes and Worting Together are registered trademarks and Domino and Work the Web are trademarks of lotus Development Corp.
So why is it your parents still dorrt get
what you do for aliving?

Ever since the day you first wrapped your 50% faster on aPower Mac~' Which translates We understand your need to see how
fingers around a crayon, you've been driven into 50% less time staring at your screen and graphics will look in Windows,
by the need to create,The way you create, waiting for your computer to finish retouch- Now you don't have to go out and buy a PC
however,has changed beyond recognition,Or ing photos, manipulating images or applying just to see how web sites and graphics you've
at least beyond Mom and Dad's recognition, filters, Valuable time you could be spending created on a Mac· will look in Windows~Just
Apple~ Macintosh" computers have always actually doing all those things, add a 166 MHz Pentium PC compatibility
understood people who create, In the words card, and your Power Mac can run Windows
of ID. Magazine, "The designer-friendly We understand your need for flexibility, . 95 or Windows 3.1 applications, You can also
quality that characterizes the Mac is deep in Some days you need to add memory, Some access a Windows network and exchange
the machine:' Now, with our newest Power days, an expansion card (or three), With files with clients and other less fortunate
Macintosh lineup, it's even deeper.
3 a Power Mac 8600 or folks who happen to use Windows,
9600 you won't need
For an even better understanding of the
We understand your need for speed, an MIS person, or even
computers that understand you, visit us at
The faster your computer, the more time you a screwdriver to do it.
www.powermacintosh.apple.com. Or call
have to experiment. That's why we created Push a button and they
open up simply and us at 800-538-9696 for the name of the
the Power Mac· 96001200MP with dual Power Mac reseller nearest you, And then, if
PowerPCNprocessors, It blows away a PC gracefully, placing the logic board at your
you haven't lately, call your mother.
with dual Pentium"Pro processors running fingertips, So you can do what you need to
Windows NT~* In fact, Adobe"Photoshop runs do and get back to doing what you love, www.powermacintosh.apple.com
©1997 AT&T

With virtual office solutions

from AT&T, you can connect

your laptop to a managed

intranet. Get instant access

to information and process

orders elect ronically. When

you live on the world's most

powerfu l network, you're in

business everywhere. Call

I 800 756-6700. Or visit us

at www . att . com/growth

Go on the road and still sit at your desk. The latest information w ill
be delivered right to your laptop. With virtual office solutions from AT&T,
anywhere you go is a place you can get something done .
ATilT

It's a I I w t h i n y ou r reach .
 NEW DELL DIMENSION XPS H266 NEW DELL DIMENSION XPS H266 141 AWARDS ACROSS
266MHz PENTIUM II PROCESSOR 266M Hz PENTIUM II PROCESSOR THE ENTIRE DIMENSION LINE

• Mini Tower Model • Mini Tower Model

What do the awards given by PC Magazine. PC
* 32MB EDO Memory * 32MB EDO Memory
• 512KB Integrated L2 Cache • 512KB Integrated L2 Cache Computing, PC Wo rld, Windows Magazine, and
* NEWS.4GB Hard Drive with 512KB * NEW6.4GB Hard Drive with 512KB Computer Shopper (over 140 ho nors since 1/96!)
Cache (9.5ms) Cache (9.5ms)
have to do with you? It means you 'll now be runn ing
• 1000HS Trinitron'" Monitor (15.9" v.i.s.• 26dp) * NEW1000LS Monitor (15.9" v.i.s.)
• Matrox Millennium 4MB WRAM Video Card dramatic multimedia presentations on the high-end
• Matrox Millennium 4MB WRAM Video Card
* NEW24X Variable EIDE CD-ROM Drive * NEW24X Variable EIDE CD-ROM Drive system s that have earned designations like PC
• Vamaha 32 Wave Table Sound • Integrated Vamaha 16-Bit Sound Magazine Editors' Cho ice fo r Best Business PC . It
• Altec ACS-290 Speakers with Subwoofer • Altec ACS-90 Speakers means you'lI be cruising the Internet on systems
• 56K Capable' U.S. Robotics x2 • Iomega Zip 100MB IDE Internal Drive
Telephony Modem with One Cartridge designated MVP and 5-Star Award winners by PC
• Iomega Zip 100MB IDE Internal Drive * MS Office 97 Small Business Edition Computing. And it means a who le lot more since
with One Cartridge plus Bookshelf
* MS@Office 97 Small Business Edition • MS Windows 95/MS IntelliMouse
they' re also awarding our great reliability and price.
plus Bookshelf • 3 Vear Limited Warranty with 1 Vear Which is what a fi rm commitment to cutting edge
• MS Windows* 95/MS IntelliMouse On-site Service engineering will get you.
• 3 vear Limited Warranty' with 1 Vear PICTURED SYSTEM
On-site Service' Just take a look at the bra nd new De ll Dimension
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Business Leaseo: $126/Mo.
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winner. Afte r all, if you're judged by the company
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NEW DELL DIMENSION XPS M233s DELL DIMENSION XPS M200a
233MHz PENTIUM PROCESSOR 200MHz PENTIUM PROCESSOR
WITH MMX ' " TECHNOLOGY WITH MMX TECHNOLOGY
• Mini Tower Model • Mini Tower Model
* 32MB SDRAM Memory * 1SMB SDRAM Memory
• 512KB Single Bank Pipeline Burst Cache • 512KB Single Bank Pipeline Burst Cache
• 3.2GB Hard Drive (12ms) ·2.1GB Hard Drive (12ms)
* NEW1000LS Monitor (15.9" v.i.s.) • 15LS Monitor (13.7" v.i.s.) TO ORDER TOll-FREE
• 4MB EDO ViRGE 3D Video Card • 2MB EDO ViRGE 3DVideo
* NEW24X Variable EIDE CD-ROM Drive • 16X Variable EIOE CD-ROM Drive
• 2 Universal Serial Bus (USB) Ports
800-678-1430
• Sound Blaster 16 WaveSynth Wavetable Sound T ORDER ONLINE
• Altec ACS-90 Speakers * MS Office 97 Small Business Edition
* MS Office 97 Small Business Edition
plus Bookshelf www.dell.com/buydell
plus Bookshelf • MS Windows 95/MS Mouse Mon-Fri 7am-9pm CT· Sat 10am-6pm CT
• MS Windows 95/MS IntelliMouse • 3 Vear Limited Warranty with 1 Vear Sun 12pm-5pm CT In Canada ~caI1800 -839-0148
On-site Service GSA Contract #GS-35F-40760
• 3vearLimitedWarrantywith 1VearOn-site Service
I Keycode #99059 I
$2399
Business Lease: $89/Mo.
$1899
Business Lease: $70/Mo.
Order Code #500610 Order Code#500611

t For a complete copy of our Guara ntees or limited Warranties. please write Dell USA LP.. One Dell Way. Round Rock. TX 78682. OLeasing arranged by third-party leasing
compan ies to qualified customers. 60n-site service provided by an independent third-pa rty provider. May not be available in certain remote areas. *x2 products are
capable of 56Kbps downloads. Due to FCC rules that restrict power output. however. Current download speeds are limited to 53Kbps. Upload speed s are limited to 33.6
Kbps. Actual speeds may vary depending on line conditions. * Prices and specifications valid in the U.S. only and subject to change without notice. Intel, the Intel Inside
logo and Penti um are registered trademarks and MMX is a trademark of Intel Corporat ion. MS, Microsoft, Windows and Windows NT are registered trademarks of
Microsoft Corporation. ©1997 Dell Computer Corporation. All rights reserved.
 There's no shortage ofthings you can do with
our best-selling PowerBook 1400, either. Play
CD-ROMs, SUI! the web' and send e-mail to
your boss back at the office.

Incite rubbernecking.
Run your own in-flight movie.
We didn't build the world's fastest laptop just to show off.
But that's not to say you can't. Among its numerous talents,
the PowerBook® 3400 is the ideal laptop for presentations.
Its awesome speed means faster, more beautiful graphics,
and its 12.1-inch diagonal screen is the perfect canvas to
display your genius for persuasion.
But don't let the 3400's blinding speed blind you to its other
features. Like its hot-swapp able expansion bay. It lets you
add all manner of drives, whether floppy, magneto-optical,
CD-ROM or a second hard drive. All without putting your
computer to sleep. To keep you connected, there's also a
built-in Ethernet/33.6 Kbps modem.
At the risk of sounding immodest, there's no end to what
you can do with the new PowerBook 3400. To learn more,
visitwww.powerbook.apple.com. Or call 800-538-9696 for
the name of the Apple reseller nearest you.
 bigger back seat
because of all those trophies.
And more headroom.
(Because of all those trophies.)

In designing our new coupe, we added

something especially for people who race THE ICY RACING CoUPE

their Saturns: more ego room. (Although our

engineers call it more headroom.) We also The 1997 SC2, as out-

added a lot of things for people who just fitted by Saturn's ICY
like to drive in their Saturns.
Like a roomier, quieter interior racing team. One of the

and a sleek, new body design. And

premier teams on the
if our new coupes weren't already
difficult to ignore, we've also added
daytime running lights. (Even changes made
circuit, they'll
in the name of safety can't help but make the
new Saturns more attractive.) The way we be speeding

• look at it, if you liked our old coupe,

SSN
. chances are you'lluke the improvements the new coupe across

and changes on our '97 even more. Of course, we many finish lines this
decided to keep the trophy-winning, 124-
horsepower, dual-overhead-cam engine. season. And you can

In Solo 11 competitions, folks like Pete utler set up courses at local airports
and race against the clock. (It's probably fairer than racing against the planes.) get one a lot like it.

Pete and his SC2 have brought home their share of first-place trophies.
(Pit crew not included.)

A DIFFERENT KIND oj COMPANY. A DIFFERENT KIND oj CAR.

This 1997 Stlturn SC2 (with allay wheels) has arl M.S.R.P. of $14,415, including retailer prep and transportation Of course, the tOMI cost will vary seeing how options are extra.
as are things like tax and license. We'd be happy to provide more detail at 1~800-522-S()()O or look for us on the Internet at http://www.saturncars.com. ©1996 Saturn Corporation.
.. .. .. ... .....
LAST.
Platinum-tipped spark plugs .
Over 93%
One hundred thousand mile
of the
tune-up intervals.*
GM vehicles
Two-sided galvanized steel body panels.

Better make sure you like it. built

We're using materials that last. in the last

Systems that don't need maintenance. ten years

Parts that fit together precisely. are on

So make sure you like the color. the road

The shape of the fender. today.

The feel of the seat. Think long-term. - R.L. Polk

You can count on every GM car "Vehicles in

Operation"
and truck, wherever life takes you.
study

*This period may vary with use and driving conditions .

www.gm.com

mr General Motors.
CHEVROlET PONTIAC OLDSMOBILE BUICK CADILLAC GMC

~ PEOPLE '*
It IN M~TION ~.
 IhIa

I
•

THIS IS CHRISTIAN.
He can see, hear,jeel, touch,
but he cannot speak. He was born
with autistic tendencies that cut
him rjJfrom the world around him.
 o
A TEACHER DISCOVERED

• that Christian would respond to images

from his life. She put visual cues to the story
<1 his new puppy on a special keyboard.
NEC MultiSync Monitors
E and A Series

THE MONITOR
T HE MONITORS THAT ARE BEST FOR
CHRISTIAN'S NEEDS can also speak to
yours. Introducing the NEC MultiSync®Enterprise and
BECAME HIS VOICE .
Advanced Series, the monitors Jar people looking Jar
With it he makes class reports and
superior, lifelike images. And the monitors Jar people
conversation . With it, Christian, 11,
has been in the regular Osterville, who want the kind if flexibility that super high

MA public school since first grade. resolutions and rifresh rates ensure.
OSM'M(On-Screen Manager) controls make image
adjustments ea~. Plus, select Enterprise monitorsJeature
CROMACLEAR'" CRT,Jor unparalleled Jocus, contrast and
intense color saturation. And, ifcourse, the industIJ-Ieading
NEC warranty includes 3 years parts, labor and CRT
For more inJormation on the new pe:Jormance-
driven MultiSync Enterprise and value-oriented Advanced
------... Until he found this window. Series call 1-800-NEC-INFO or visit www.nec.com .

• Max Res
M U LTISYNC @MO N ITORS
Bandwidth CRT Type Pi tch
A500 1280 x 1024 112MHz Dot Trio 0.28mm dot
@60Hz
A700 1280 x 1024 119MHz Dot Trio 0.28mm dot
@65Hz
E500 1280 x 1024 119MHz CROMACLEAR O.25mm mask
@65Hz
E700 1600 x 1200 177MHz CROMACLEAR O.25mm mask
@65Hz
E1!OO 1600 x 1200 177MHz Dot Trio 0.28mm dot
@65 Hz
WITH THE PICTURES, HE MADE SENTENCES.

• With the sentences, he made friends. Christian's monitor is ~

~ ;/
Expect more. Experience more.
the window between his non-verbal world and the speaking world
<1 his friends. Through it, he teaches them many things.
NEe
 ©1997 Hitachi PC Corporation (USA). All rights reserved. VisionBook" and Mobilized Computing" are trademarks of Hitachi PC Corporalion (USA), which may be registered
in some jurisdictions.The Intel Inside Logo &Pentium" are registered trademarks and MMX is a trademark of Intel Corporation. All other marks are owned by
pentium' their respective companies. All x2 products are capable of 56Kbps downloads; however, due to FCC regulations which restrict power output, current download speeds
are limiled to 53Kbps.Model shown is 6630X and specs quoted apply to that model. Specif~ations and availability subject to change without notice.
 Introducing

THE HITACHI VISIONBOOK ELITE.

ULTRA THIN. VERY LIGHT. PANORAMIC SCREEN.

It's astonishing how a word from you really gets the wheels moving

back at corporate headquarters. Of course, given how business is done

these days, you're often not there to put out the word in person. 'Which is

why Hitachi Mobilized Computing" technology is a business tool of

strategic import. And the new Hitachi Vision Book Elite'" delivers it in a

package so light and so thin you'll take it wherever business takes you.

'With its extra large 13.3" screen, hyper-fast xT modem, and slim

media file base, its functionality and communications abil ities are

Including access to information and

graphics on the Internet or your

company server. The Hitachi

Vision Book Elite. Roam the

planet as you must. your

influence at the home base

remains undiminished.

SI GNIFICANT FEATURES:

Extremely thin (14') and light (51s lbs)

Super large 13.3" TFT display. XGA resolution
166M Hz Intel' Pentium processor with
MM)( technology for superior Video
Hyper-quick US RobotiCS xT modem-
the fastest in a notebook.
Sli m filebase with lOx CD ROM
and 3.S" floppy drive.
16MB EDO RAM upgradable to 80MB
Lithium-Ion battery pack
2 1GB removable hard drive.

HITACHI
~& ••• :. . . . . . .~
COM PUT IN G "

Call1-800-Hitachi
www.Hitdc h iPC .com

-WRD 0797
 Editor/ Publisher: louis Rossetto
President: Jane Metcalfe

acommunity Executive Editor: Kevin Kelly

Deputy Editor: John Battelle
Creative Directors: John Plunkett and Barbara Kuhr
Managing Editor: Russ Mitchell
Assistant Managing Editor: Jackie Bennion
Features Editors: Peter Leyden, James Daly, Spencer Reiss
Section Editors: Amy Jo hns, Jessie Scanlon, Tim Barkow, Todd lappin

without fashion Staff Editor: Will iam O. Goggins

Copy Editors: Kristine Kern, Mark Nichol
Research Editor: Michael Behar
Research Associates: Heidi Kriz, Patricia Krueger
Intelligent Agent: Jesse Freund
Editorial Assistants: Ted Roberts, Anne Speedie
Interns: Jennifer Sullivan (Edit),Julie Sullivan (Research),
Rache l lehmann-Haupt (Writing)
Editor-at-large: Katrina Heron
You can walk down the street and spot a cowboy. Contributing Editors: Colin Berry (Music),John Browning (Europe),
John Heilemann (National Affairs), Bob Johnstone, Jon Katz (Media),
You can spot the gangster kids, the skateboarders, the Bernie Krisher (Asia), Oliver Morton (Science), David Pescovitz (Reality
Check), Steve G. Steinberg, Rogier van Bakel
Contributing Writers: John Perry Barlow, Thomas Bass, Ivan Berger, Stewart
jocks, and the surfer types. Brand, Gareth Branwyn, Po Bronson, Douglas Coupland, David Diamond,
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Fred Hapgood, Joi Ito (Japan), Jaron lanier, Andrew leonard, Jacques l eslie,
Have you ever noticed anyone interested In the Steven l evy, Pamela McCorduck, Brock N. Meeks, Phil Patton, Charles Platt,
Joshua Qu ittner, Jef Raskin, Rudy Rucke r, Paul Saffo, Michael Schrage, Evan
future? How about technology or entrepreneurialism? I. Schwartz, Peter Schwartz, John Shirley, R. U. Sirius, Burr Snider, Neal
Stephenson, Bruce Sterling, Gary Wo lf

Nope? Senior Columnist: Nicholas Negroponte

Design Director: Thomas Schneider
Senior Designer: Eric Courtemanche
Hi ... how are ya. Designer: Barbara Radosavljevic
Photo Editor: Erica Ackerberg
Photo Associate: Jennifer Butler
Contributing Artists: Erik Ad igard, Glenn Bair, lou Beach, Jeff Brice, Michael
Crumpton, Paul Davis, Georganne Deen, Giles Dunn, Stan Gaz, John Hersey,
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Steve Speer
Contributing Photographers: Steve Double, Gabor Ekecs, Paul Elledge, William
Faulkner, Aaron Goodman, Jill Greenberg, John Harding, Thomas Hei nser,
Asia Kepka, Mark leong, Norman Mauskopf, David McGlynn, Karen Moskowitz,
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Production Art Director: Eugene Mosier
Production Artists: Kristin Burkart, Van Burnham
Prepress Specialist: Brad Brace
Production Coordinator: Tom Claburn
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Design Administrative Assistant: Carolyn Rauch
Interns: Marc Contrera s, Anna Goldwater
the Sven™ Corporate Communications: Don Markley
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Mailroom: Michael Behen Receptor SF: Kris Wasley
Check out Wired News at www.wired.com/.
TlC: Ian Baecht, Philip Ferrato, "Education is ideally
Ratka Popovic, William Stample civil defense against
Coach: Charlie Jackson media fallout."
Patron Saint: Marshall Mcluhan

Wired Ventures Inc.

Chief Executive Officer: Louis Rossetto
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Executive Assistant to CEO: Adam Messner
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Vice President, Corporate and Business Development: Rex O. Ishibashi
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© 1997 Wired Magazine Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction without permission is prohibited.
Wired (lSSN 1059-1028) is a publication of Wired Ventures Inc.
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 BOB

Bob knows from his computer

he can book a flight (and earn up to

500 bonus AVAdvantage~ miles every

time he does so), select his seat, see

what movie is playing, manage his

AAdvantage account, check out special

AAdvantage promotions and low

Net SA'iAver Fares~, look up all sorts

of flight information and learn

interesting facts most humans don't

know about airplanes. For instance,

did you know a Boeing 757 has a

wingspan of 124' 10", roughly six

times that of the average pterodactyl?

Bob did.

from flights, hotel stays and rental cars, as well as

award levels, All from your computer. And right
now, you can ea rn up to 500 bonus miles with
every trip you book on-line and complete by the
end of the year.
So why let Bob have all the fun? Visit hccess
via the Web~ on the Internet. Or for a WINDOWS"-
base d link to American Ai rl ines, call fo r our
Personal AAccess software,

For Internet users,AAccess via the \l'i?b is located at www.americanair.com To order Personal AAccess for your PC, caUl-800-AACCESS (222-2377)
American Airlines and AAdvantage arc registered trademarks, and Net SMyer Fares, AAccess, American Airlines TntcractiveTr"vei Netw o rk, PersonalAAcccss and AAcccss via the Web are trademarks, of American Airlines, Inc.American Airlines reserves
the right to change AAdvantage program rules, regulatio ns, travel awards and sped:11 offers at any time w ithout notice, and to cnd the AAdv.tnlage program with six months notice. WINDOWS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporatio n.
 Editor/Publisher: Louis Rossetto
President: Jane Metcalfe

Vice President: Dana Lyon

Associate Publisher: Drew Schutte +1 (415) 2764902
Email: Advert ising:[email protected]:[email protected]
San Francisco New York
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The most efficient way to reach us at Wired is via [email protected]@wired.com.
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Peering into The Well

I enjoyed the epic history ofThe Well, if that is the speech a bit better. Tom's positive and negative con- here in the first place will arrive. I'm looking forwa rd
right description for something that ultimately left tributions to the discourse on The Well were so clearly to exploring this ASCII utopia.
me rather depressed, albeit soaked in nostalgia ("The a net positive; he single-handedly stretched the digi- Jeff Kramer
World's Most Influential Online Community (And It's tal spaces so that they allowed for greater variety of [email protected]
Not AOL}," Wired 5.05, page 98).lf I only had Katie thought and expression than most other systems truly
Hafner's article to go on, I'd assume that The Well was tolerate. Tom demonstrated again and again that the Nothing can describe The Well better than a random
a thing of the past, which it most definitely is not. richness of our public conversations is directly propor- selection of, say, 50 consecutive posts. It's all there,
I could have also done with less lengthy quotes tional to their tolerance for passionate, and even from the ridiculous to the sublime; personalities,
from postings, but OTOH those are the essence of angry, disagreement. Sometimes Tom was the dis- rivalries, ancient histories, psychology, sociology, the
The Well, so what the hey. senter - other times he was the voice of the ortho- needy and the greedy and the giving .. . as new-
All in all, despite the things not covered in the doxy. What he invariably did was demonstrate the comers can easily see.
article - which, by definition, would have to be most ways one could be a human being on The Well. David S. Jackson
things in The Well's history - I thought Hafner's article Mike Godwin [email protected]
was one of the better things Wired has run in some mnemonic@well .com
time. Sure begs to be Inside the Hothouse
a book. at Sun Microsystems
Jay Kinney It is clear from reading
[email protected] David Diamond's "Hot-
house Flowers" that he
It's kind of weird to have has been sadly misled
been so involved with about the role of distin-
The Well for so many guished engineers at
years, to know so much Sun Microsystems ("Cor-
about so many folks, yet porate Rebels," Wired
to have been sort of 5.05, page 170). ln my
unreal, too, because I live experience the typical
in Austin, Texas - far DE parachutes uninvited
from the action. into the midst of an
The face-to-face com- engineering project with
ponent will always be which he - they are
most important. The Well almost all male - has
fo lks with whom I've had had no previous involve-
the closest relationships ment. The DE informs
are all people that I already knew or eventually met I'd been telling myself I'd get a Well account since the development team that whatever they are doing
face to face. 1993, but still hadn't done it. So there I was sitting is wrong, because they are not doing it the way he
Some Well Beings and Net denizens think f2f is on an old, ratty couch at an ISP in San Marcos, Texas. did it the last time he personally developed any-
unnecessary for community, and others disagree. I'd read about halfway through "The World's Most thing, which was generally a long time ago. He then
Maybe it's not that f2f is necessary for community, Influential Online Community" and I thought,"AOL catches a flig ht to the next drop zone, leaving a trail
but that it changes the character of community and for people with brains? I think I need another email of chaos and demoralization in his wake.
gives it real depth. address." So I scrambled over to one of the dual Over time, this behavior has tended to reward risk
Jon lebkowsky Pentium Pro 200s, tel netted into well.com, and regis- avoidance rather than risk taking in less-senior engi-
[email protected] tered. Voila. neers, who perceive correctly that maverick behavior
I think the article made its mark, which was to is more likely to earn them a visit from their friendly
For me, Tom Mandel was the essence of free speech educate people as to what The Well is and was, and neighborhood DE. Promotion to DE is based on a
online. All the good and all the bad aspects of that to remind the folks who knew but hadn't bothered vote of the DE community, further reducing an engi-
freedom were so tightly coiled in Tom that I some- to go spelunking down it. Contrary to some Well neer's incentive to engage in nonconformist thinking
times mused that no one could contemplate Tom worries, I don't think the community's population that might make a DE unhappy.Those few who still
Mandel without understanding the nature of free will explode; rather, people who should have been take chances eventually find themselves frozen out

W I RED JULY 1997 112

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RAN T 5 R A V E 5
•• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Grading Belgrade
of the exclusive club, however worthy their accom- David Bennahum's article on the use of the Net by access to information provided by the Internet nec-
plishments may be. In this way, DEs ensure that only Serbian dissidents ("The Internet Revolution," Wired essarily furthers democratic efforts around the world.
those who think like them become DEs, and the 5.04, page 122) was gripping, thoughtful, and ele- Nevertheless, I found the article remarkably naIve.
cycle continues. gantly written. But perhaps unintentionally, he comes Reading this account, one would think that the polit-
A senior engineer at Sun Microsystems who aspires close to perpetuating a dangerous misconception ical situation could be simply described as the totali-
to be a distinguished engineer about technology. Although Bennahum is initially tarians versus the democrats, opaque information
wary ofthe idea that the Net is inherently democra- versus transparent information, brutish police thugs
Make Threats, Not Bombs tizing, his experience in Belgrade fairly convinces (some of the same people responsible, as you assert,
I read John Carlin's "A Farewell to Arms" (Wired 5.05, him that "access to the Internet is incompatible with for the genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina) versus free-
page 51) with interest.The article emphasized the authoritarianism ." spirited and cosmopolitan intellectuals. There is no
disruption of an infrastructure by digital means, but The Net can be a great tool for organizing, but mention of the leaders of the opposition, whose
in the United Kingdom we have already started to Bennahum's statement reflects a technological deter- complicated ideological backgrounds are by no means
witness a variation on this theme. For years, the IRA minism that downplays the role of human will and "transparently" democratic. Subsequent developments
has threatened our major cities, especially London, action in the Serbian conflict. Isn't the Net flexible in the opposition (including Vuk Draskovic's apparent
with the promise of bombs planted in sensitive enough that it can mean different things in different support for a restoration of the monarchy) don't con-
areas. In the past, emphasis seemed to be on specific contexts - depending on how it is used? Repressive vince me that digital democracy necessarily overlaps
places and buildings. governments and corporations, for example, can use so neatly with antitotalitarian movements.
In the months leading up to the parliamentary the Net as a sophisticated surveillance tool. And even Susan Erickson
election on May 1, we saw the regular disruption well-meaning netizens can get so caught up in cyber- [email protected]
of major highways and rail and commuter networks; space that they ignore the social and political prob-
with such rerouting of people, travel across the city lems of their nonvirtual communities. Dear PTT, PS
became nearly impossible. Bomb warnings at While I hope Bennahum is right in predicting that Nicholas Negroponte's open letter to the national
mUltiple places locked down major parts of the the wired Serbian democrats will emerge victorious, departments of posts, telephones, and telegraphs
country. This very morning, Heathrow, Gatwick, and events of the last few weeks show the protest move- echoes the sentiments of Internet users around the
some of the major Underground and rail stations ment in disarray and dictator Siobodan Milosevic world ("Dear PH," Wired 5.04, page 192).
were threatened. consolidating power. This, of course, creates an uncom- Outside the US, many people are deprived of the
The use of actual bombs is not necessary to effec- fortable situation for the real hardcore determinist: opportunity to join the information society, bur-
tively destroy our infrastructure. Information alone if the dissidents have Net access, why does authori- dened with expensive access costs, thanks to short-
- in the form of bomb warnings - does the job. tarianism prevail? One answer is that technology sighted local politicians blessing high monopoly
Martyn Jeffries doesn't determine politics, people do. tariffs and backward-looking entrepreneurs running
ma [email protected].(om Andrew l. Shapiro national phone companies. In many countries, only
[email protected] campuses, publicly funded institutions, and private
Web Waste companies offer unrestricted Net access. The situa-
I enjoyed Steven Alan Edwards's "It's Alive" (Wired Belgrade's "Internet Revolution" was a positive hap- tion reminds me of the 19th century, when only the
5.04, page 110). However, I don't believe nature grows pening in the wired world. But the fragility of this wealthy could afford to buy books, and the majority
efficiently or evolves until it is put into adverse situa- revolution was demonstrated by the Western embargo depended on public libraries.
tions. The clogging up and "polluting" of the Internet against Serbia during the war. As a side effect, Serbia You're correct that online penetration in Germany
may be a necessary step in its evolution. and other parts of the former Yugoslavia were cut has been stunted by Deutsche Telekom's high tariffs,
All his examples point to the fact that no matter off from the Internet for several years. According which are the major reason for the slow development
what the system - whether it be the human body, to people in the University of Belgrade's computer of the German consumer market. What would be
an ecosystem, or a large bureaucratic corporation department, being offline was a major obstacle in considered typical Net usage in the US would easily
- there is always lots of waste product. Perhaps it is communicating with the world and generating for- cost the equivalent of US$200 to $300 a month in
just natural that we need this excess and waste to eign support. Germa ny. With some US phone companies now con-
function? So it seems quite blue-eyed to praise the "Internet sidering metering access to ISPs, economists should
The Internet is growing and mutating at a fast Revolution" without recognizing that blocking Yugo- study the German case carefully.
rate, sending out tendrils to test the environment. slavia's Net connection limited the people's access Hermann R. Neus
Seeing what works and what doesn't. The Net is to information uncensored by the government. [email protected]
millions of sensory points, each inputting its own Just another crack in the fairy tale of an indestruc-
life-cycle pattern. Many individuals and groups will tible global Internet. As long as there are backbones, Nicholas Negroponte's article on privatizing govern-
die so that others can flourish. Survival of the fittest. there is the ability to block Net communication and ment-owned telcos does not stand up on logic. He
The Net will grow and evolve. isolate whole countries or movements from inter- explains in detail what governments could spend
Let the Internet run wild - when it can grow no national information exchange. their money on, but somehow skips any good reason
further, then it will be time to put our husbandry Marcus Polke for selling them in the first place.
ski lls into practice to develop the hybrid from the Berlin, Germany In Australia, the publicly owned corporation Telstra
vast amount of building material that will have is destined for a market offering this year. Though it
become available. This fascinating article presents an aspect of the does not have a monopoly anymore and several for-
Will Roy Serbian upheavals that would be difficult to find in eign start-ups are poised to enter the market, Telstra
will@omen.(om.au other print accounts. It raises a central issue: whether is - and will likely remain - a license to print money.

WIRED JULY 1997

 .1 ", I\l~ C' II :Ji'
l\\' -/ i J. . n ! 'I;)~ 'i' , A, f: 1 1
t ~-~ J ' :f:, t ,"" it It '
fr 1~" .ttl}. /.' !
RAN T 5 .. R A V E 5
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
A Pirate Is a Pirate
And as the Internet and future interactive services a 15-year-old girl who is sick and tired of wearing Those who will be the leaders of the 21 st century
become more a part of our lives, virtual monopolies of pink so that I can fit society's portrait of a young lady. quite probably read Wired.They will be the lawmak-
telecommunications infrastructure can only increase After reading Jon Katz's "Birth of a Digital Nation" ers, the standard setters, and the "experts" who will
in value. (Wired 5.04, page 49),1 was shouting "hurrah" at his inevitably face the task of updating copyright law.
Governments in the fortunate position of owning description of the next generation of model citizens, Not many of them know enough about software
compan ies whose value can only skyrocket should citizens without stereotypes. Then I read "Girl Games" piracy; unfortunately, now they think they do ("Warez
hang on to them and use the enormous profits to (page 98) and was so disgusted by the game industry Wars," Wired 5.04, page 132).
fund education and other essential services, rather that I could have spit. Girls my age have worked hard I'm sure that some self-respecting "pirates" across
than handing the rewards to big business. for the freedom to say what we damn well please the globe have already ranted about David McCand-
Nick Moraitis and the ability to speak to elders without our heads less's misguided and utterly myopic treatment of
[email protected] down and eyes averted. The makers of girl games the warez world, so I won't repeat what I'm sure has
need to wake up and realize that not everyone with- already been said.
Hamming It Up out a peniS must wear makeup and chase blond What troubled me the most was the generaliza-
As a licensed amateur radio operator, I've studied surfers named Ken . tion of pirates and their motives:"They don't need
spectrum charts many times, but have never enjoyed Janie Porche this Java Development Kit tool, or that Photoshop
one as much as "The Manhattan of Spectrum Real netracerOl@aol .com plug-in ... [They] toy absentmindedly with its tool-
Estate" ("Get Wireless," Wired 5.04, page 142). bars and pa lettes before tucking it away and never
We ham operators are paranoid that big business I read Jon Katz's article with interest. I, too, have been running it again ." This is truly insulting. I don't pirate
is going to gobble up our radio playground. After all, impressed by the virtues Net users display, including software for the fun of it! I m'ost certainly need, and
we are goofing around with billions of dollars' worth their defense of free speech, lack of cant, and no- use, pirated software. I need to do extracurricular
of bandspace. So far, we've only had a few inches bullshit worldview. research so I can get into graduate school. One
shaved off here and there, thanks to heavy lobbying However, our wired generation has some obvious Microsoft developer's kit costs US$499; the best
by the American Radio Relay League. flaws: a rudimentary-at-best knowledge of history competing product weighs in at a mere $795. With-
But the ARRL is also part of the problem . It's domi- and poor reading habits. While well informed about out one of them, I'm spinning my wheels, stuck in
nated by geezers who cling to Morse code, are sus- much of the digital world, we're often woefully unin- neutral, my research at a standstill. Yet I simply do
picious of the younger generation, and don't want formed about the rest of the planet. not have the money.
to push the technologica l envelope - which is why The Net can be as cliquish and exclusionary as any A pirate is a pirate is a pirate, from the MIS for a
amateur radio was started. other human institution . Katz acknowledges this, but Fortune 500 company, scouring FTP warez sites for
The good news is that the really cool band s - fails to see it as a serious hindrance to the Net genera- that app he desperately needs to make his deadline,
902 and 1240 MHz - are wide open for innovation . tion's impact on politics and the society at large. to the sysop of a commercial warez group HQ bul-
The bad news is that if we don't use them, they'll be Let's not fool ourselves. We're no better or smarter letin board, to Usenet warez redistributors. But they
given away to private industry as a political favor. than anyone else. If we can remember that, rather are not all the same.They represent vastly different
We desperately need the next generation to start than celebrate our virtues in a triumphalist fashion , sections of th e warez society. Sections that, for the
innovating again. we are more likely to have a positive impact on the most part, McCandless has ignored.
Craig A. Hallman world. Joe Soroka
[email protected] Daniel Caito [email protected]
[email protected]
Libraries Are Wonderful ..• Undo
The "Push!" cover story (Wired 5.03) referred to the Psychedelia or Psychosis Well, Well : A photo caption in "The World's Most
Web as a "wonderful library." A library is a place where I was disappointed to see the glib assessment of Influential Online Community (And It's Not AOL)"
information is not only stored, but organized. The Steve Speer's emotional torture of a friend as simply (Wired 5.05, page 98) misidentified the server beside
library has been set up to make it easier to find the a "plan for modern psyched eli a" ("Speer's Head," Wired sysop David Hawkins as a Sequent; as readers with
information you need without slogging through 5.04, page 136). 1have never been taken by the notion sharp eyesight can see, the machine was a VAX.
reams of possibly fascinating, but irrelevant material. that artists should live by a different set of standards In addition, better-belated-than-never thanks go
If you have trouble, an information specialist will for social interaction. This tacit assumption leads us to Judy Bunce for letting us use her photos in the
assist you. to view instances of grotesque or reprehens ible collage of Well members.- Feedback:The Force FX
The World Wide Web is a vast, broad - not always behavior as mere foibles. joystick (Feti sh, Wired 5.04, page 56) is made by
very deep - often useful, sometimes delightfully I have no trouble separating the artist from the CH Products, not Immersion. - Czech Up: Prague's
esoteric archive. A library it is not. art. I have viewed much of Speer's work and find it Terminal Bar (Updata, Wired 5.03, page 108) can be
Sandy Malloy brilliant. I encourage Wired to praise his work, but found on the Web at www.terminal.cz/.- Freudian
Oakland, California perhaps - in the interest of accuracy - the editors Strip: The Houston Ship Channel is a polluted water-
would consider changing the heading of the first way; the "Houston Strip Channel" (Raw Data, Wired
Generation Y section from "Steve Speer's plan for modern psyche- 5.04, page 78) is probably on cable.
I am speaking as a member of Generation Y, the delia, part one" to "Steve Speer has the capacity to
almost forgotten generation of 14- to 16-year-olds be a great big asshole, an example." Send your Rants & Raves to:
who - goddamnit - want some attention. What we All this aside, I find your publication fascinating. Email: [email protected]
don't want is more nonsense that girl games must Chris Petrauskas Snail mail: Wired, PO Box 191826
include pink, lace, makeup, shopping, and boys. I am [email protected] San Francisco, CA 94109-9866

WIRED JULY 1997 &16

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 Interactive Goddesses like us.

Michele's East Village Guide to Dining, Drinking and Carousing.

www.geocities.com/napavalley/2788

Peopl e libe GeoCities . People, libe Michele Madansby, Inter- GeoCities is a "destination"
active Goddess of BB DO New Yorb. As New Media Manager, "GeoCities helps me wi,en 1'm trying to target a specific audience
here's what sl, e has to say about advertising on GeoCities, where, not by using any variety of their 33 common- interest neighborhoods
coincidently, she's also a "homesteader" with her own Home Page. without sacrificin g reach:'
Web Advertising Find out for yourself how GeoCities can help yo u to reach a total
"These days it 's more than just huilding a Web site. 1'm seel,ing audience of 180 million page views per month~ which includes
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objectives. 1'm loobing for sites where people are in the mood to Give Paul DeBracc io a call at 2 12.686.9045, or e-mail him
browse and scl,mooze. With GeoCities tl,ey're more liI,ely to at [email protected] and let him craft a creative and flex-
pay attention to my adverti sing message, because it provides ible solution fo r your interactive advertising objectives, or simply
a hiendly environment that encourages interaction." visit www.geocities.com/mediakit

I:
' Neilsen's I/P I<O , February '97 People like us.
 Net to Cokie: Drop Dead
While old-media dinosaurs like Cokie and Steven Roberts bash
the Web as a threat to representative democracy, netizens are
proving them wrong at democracy.net.
With a mission to foster new avenues of civic participation,
democracy.net is dragging the art of politics into cyberspace -
think C-Span interactive. Cobbled together on a shoestring bud-
get, the site is the latest joint venture between Voters Telecom-
munications Watch and the Center for Democracy and Technol-
ogy (CDT).
Democracy.net is already creating a stir - among elected offi-
cials and netizens. A recent cybercast of congressional hearings
on cryptography underscores the promise of new-media politics:
whereas only 100 people could fit into the well-appointed room
in the Senate's Russell Building, more than 700 gathered online.
Representatives Rick White
(R-Washington) and Anna Eshoo (D-California) and FCC chair
Reed Hundt have all hosted RealAudio chats.
"TV doesn't allow interaction;' says CDT's Jonah Seiger. "The
Net provides an opportunity to create government without
walls." - Spencer E. Ante

....
.= .....I
....
.= -r J

I
"r: vefything for a buck" might have been the
I - slogan for the latest auction of wireless spectrum
by the Federal Communications Commission. The
agency's April sale raised US$13.6 million of an
expected $1.8 billion - a 99.24 percent shortfall.
Anticipating returns similar to 1995's $7.7 bil-
lion PCS auction, Congress fast-tracked the sale
so proceeds could be applied to the budget deficit.
Then, the FCC fumbled its pitch by not stressing
the strengths of the 2.3-GHz blocks, which are
good for fixed wireless service. As a result, most
big telecom companies didn't show. The few bid-
ders who did failed to make the auction competi-
tive. Licenses in Milwaukee and Minneapolis sold
for a measly $1 apiece; Coloma Wireless walked
away with a San Francisco license for $6.
"No one was moving in on the low bids," glows
Scott Donohue of Coloma. "It was extraordinary."
The fate of future spectrum auctions now lies
on Capitol Hill. But selling more spectrum when the
PCS licenses have yet to be used, let alone paid for,
is called "flooding the market." Communications
companies go bankrupt, Congress gets stiffed, and
consumers are left without choices. - Tim Barkow

191 WIRED JULY 1997

 eraldine Laybourne knows how far a light touch
can go on cable TV. During her 15-plus years at
Nickelodeon, she helped launch some of the coolest
kids' shows of the '80s and gave reruns hipster cachet.
Now as president of Disney/ABC Cable Networks, her
latest challenge is that outpost of estrogen on the cable
dial, Lifetime Television. "I would like to see a sense of
humor," says Laybourne, reflecting on a network that
isn't exactly famous for its laugh-a-minute pace. "There's
a lot that's funny about women's lives."
So far, she's shaken up Friday nights with a block of
programs referred to as "The Place." Viewers can tune in
to such non-Valerie Bertinelli fare as Three Blind Dates-
a kind of Singled Out meets The Real World but with less
hooting - or The Dish, a buffet of pop cu lture that's as
breezy as an IKEA ad.
"At my very first board meeting my words were, 'If it
ain't broke, fix it anyway,'" Laybourne recalls. "Lifetime
earned the place it's in. It has an audience. Now we can
afford to do more original programming." The genera-
tion that grew up watching Nick at Nite eagerly awaits.
- Mary Elizabeth Williams

=111 Someone Gets It at ABC: Believe it or not, there are signs of intelli-

gent life on the network t hat led its Heaven's Gate coverage with corre-

spondent Gina Smith doing an AltaVista search on "Satanic." A real

gem recently surfaced on World News Now. In an April Fools' segment of World News Then, ABC spoofed the media's relentless The-Internet-Is-Evil-Incarnate meme, The script went

like th is: "Egypt's emerging papyrus technology contin ues to alarm parents and law enforceme nt, A new bill introduced today would let the government regulate material found

on papyrus. Legislators said paperspace, as it is known to so-called 'writers: is becoming a haven for monotheists,

con artists, a nd worse hoping to prey on the young and gullible. A little bit later in this broadcast we will have some

tips on how to shield your children from offensive and dangerous material found on the dangerous papyrus." =111 ~

n the World According to DVD - that's

digital versatile disc, for those out of step
with the Next Big Thing in consumer elec-
tronics - the globe is neatly divided into six
zones, and a format that works in one won't
work in another, Not exactly a business plan
for a global economy.
But apparently this is the best solution
media and hardware companies could come
up with to combat illegal copying. Having
learned the hard way through rampant unau-
thorized reproduction of videotapes and com-
puter software, leading electronics outfits
figure that with the differentiation, counter-
feiters will have less incentive to crank out
their wares. China, where piracy is almost
a national sport, is a DVD zone unto itself.
Meanwhile, a consortium of 10 DVD com- z

panies has agreed on a DVD-R design to "'"

>
allow recording. Let's hope this format - o
::;
which is for your PC, not your TV - will play
in any country. - David Lazarus

WIRED JULY 1997

 Killing Words
Hate your job? Fire off a resig-
nation letter in Jack the Ripper's
handwriting. Feeling mischie-
vous? Print your correspondence
in Lee Harvey Oswald's scrawl.
Following in the keystrokes
of other custom font makers,
Stuart Shapiro, a producer of
independent films, created Killer
Fonts (www.killerfonts.com/).
Teamed with fontographer Ted
Oilier, Shapiro culled letters,
manuscripts, and books for
handwriting samples from vari-
ous murderous sorts. The roster
covers the Zodiac Killer, Butch
Cassidy, Lizzie Borden, and
Genghis Khan. "My Number One
request is o. J. Simpson," Shapiro
says, "but we're not doing it."
Humans aren't the only killers
inspiring Shapiro's product line:
"We're thinking of making fonts
out of the molecular structure
of diseases." - Dave Cravotta

.. Net Telephony Takes a Bite: A consulting firm in London claims that the giant German telco Deutsche Telekom will lose

at least US$ 173 million in revenues by 2001 due to Internet telephony. =111 Poor America Online: We may beat up on

AOL a lot, b ut we're willing to ad mit when the on li ne Goliath has been treated unfairl y. Consider the recent spate of email outages that have plagued MSN, Com puServe, IBM, and other

Net p rovide rs. Some of these breakdowns have been just as serious as AOL's, and they certainly suggest that AOL is not alone in bungl ing t he exponential growth of o nline services.

But no o ne is jum p ing on Microsoft or IBM with fro nt- page

head lines or class-action suits. It ain't easy be ing the biggest.

=111 Unwired Top 10: /conocast, an Internet advertising news- ..

Despite the hype about smart- reader and dialing up your bank.
cards, few implementations Shops, parking meters, and
extend beyond phone calls. Banks public transportation are gearing
in The Netherlands are changing up to accept the cards. And even-
that, however, rolling out the tually, readers will be installed
largest initiative anywhere in in all phones and PCs for Net
the world. Since last fall, Dutch commerce. Unused capacity on
banks have issued more than the chip could hold medical infor-
4 million cards equipped with mation and telephone numbers,
a chipknip, Dutch for "electronic or be used by a vendor to store
purse." Now, banking giant Post- coupons and the like.
bank is getting in on the act. About 20,000 businesses now
Postbank's Chipper platform accept the cards. But with Post-
functions like a normal debit card bank's plunge, the concept is
but can also store cash on an poised to really take off, probably
embedded chip. Short on guilders? just in time to make another
Upload some more at a public pay switch - this time to the euro.
phone by inserting the card in a - Jeffrey Mann

WIRED J U L Y 1 997 196

 Web Rustling
W RED
On the freewheeling Net, it's irrele- Heard, however, is considering
Webmaster Admaster vant that information wants to be legal action despite the difficulty of
free - it's there for the taking. suing a firm in Singapore.
Let's Go Underbelly "People on the Net have a weak Web theft is worsening, Heard
sense of property;' says Jim Heard, claims. "Smaller companies can be
Java OS Inferno CEO of Buoyant, a New York design swallowed up by copying;' he says.
company ready to do battle with "Intellectual property law is sup-
BeBox Yellow Box
Singapore-based Thru Eyes Web posed to protect garage geniuses,
Complaining about spam alt.revenge Design Studio. "There're a lot of but what garage genius can afford
cattle rustlers out there." the legal bill?"
The Lost World: Jurassic Park Turok: Dinosaur Hunter After finding Thru Eyes's copycat - Ashley Craddock
site, Buoyant accused the firm of
WAVandMIDI Mute checkbox lifting its code and text.
When alerted to ~~~'iif'7f~~~~~
Hemp clothes Hemp beer the apparent
ripoff, Thru
Time-division multiplexing Wave-division multiplexing
Eyes's director
removed the
Tamagotchi KinderSurprise
material, attribut-
ing it to a "free-
lance student."

.. letter, looked at t he top 10 television advertisers (by spending) during one week in February. Of the 10, only one, Saturn, was on the Web.

=111 A Match Made in Heaven: If it won't sell in the US .. . export it to China! That's the apparent t hinking inside Prodigy Inc., which recently

announ~ed a deal to create an online service based in Shanghai. Information will be filtered ac~o rding to the Chinese government's wishes-

no problem! Prodigy used to be known as a family online service, remember? With China, it's back to basics. "All the stuff will be screened,"

Prodigy chair Greg Carr told The Wall Street Journal a nd Reuters. "We want to be good citizens, we don't want the government to come ..

W hen a Fox Broadcasting executive

wanted a catchy Christmas card,
he tapped two college grads to create
an animated video. In their Quentin
Tarantino-meets-Rankin Bass-style short,
Christ comes down from heaven to kick
Santa's butt fo r ruining his birt hday.
"We kept our names off it because
we thoug ht it was too controversial,"
says cocreator Matt Stone (fa r left). "This
worked to our advantage, because in
Hollywood that drives people crazy." After
a flurry of offers, Stone and partner Trey
Parker landed a show, South Park, that

"We love to push the edge," says

Stone. "To shy away from bad taste is
a shame. It's leaving something unex-
plored." - Paula Parisi

W I R E D JULY 1 997
 Look out. A half-organic, half- photons, converts them into
synthetic computer chip has been electrical voltages, and trans-
bred at the Oak Ridge National mits that information to envi-
Laboratory in Tennessee. The ronmental investigators.
bioluminescent bioreporter inte- So far, experiments with the
grated circuit, which researchers prototype chip have gone swim-
Mike Simpson (pictured) and mingly. Sayler and Simpson have
Gary Sayler call Critters on a encountered only one major
Chip, is designed to detect pollu- problem: the bacteria die within
tants, explosives, and chemicals a few days. While many potential
in soil and water. apps won't require extended life
Here's how it works: The outer spans, the scientists have devised
layer of the silicon chip contains a solution. They plan to build a
bacteria suspended in a polymer reservoir of water and nutrients
substrate. These genetically engi- that will be pumped onto the
neered critters glow when exposed bacteria - resulting in a true
to certain pollutants or chemicals. microcosm on a microchip.
The integrated circuit senses - Jesse Freund

• round and spank us. We'll block it as much as we have to to keep our friends happy."

Joy joy. =111 ZDTV, The Sequel: Producers in New York must be seething. Ziff-Davis's recent

announcement that its US$l 00 million, 24-hour service, ZDrV: Your Computer Channel, will be located in San Francisco may make the city a true television mecca. =111 Make It Stop!:

Web browsers are succumbing to the dreaded Bloat Disease, and a backlash is building against forthcoming 4.0 versions from Microsoft and Netscape. They take up too much space,

try to do too many things, and are far too top·down, complain netizens in the know. Upgrades "are not an excuse for engineers at Microsoft, Netscape, and Sun to rewrite rules on how

I use my computer," writes cybercolumnist Dave Winer. Suddenly 3.0

browsers are looking almost sexy. =111

he future may soon find

Harley-Davidson geeks with
calculators embedded in their
forearms. Inventor Andrew
Singer, however, had medical
uses in mind for his recent
patent, a programmable "tat-
too." The chip implant's LCD
readout is visible through the
skin. "Medical biosensing," says
Singer, "is increasingly practical
for chronic and acute conditions"
such as diabetes, where the
device could read insulin levels.
"This could save precious time
in an emergency."
So when can you get one? No
time soon, says Singer's employer,
Interval Research. A secretive
R&D firm owned by Paul Allen,
Interval claims no commercial
aspirations for the patent. "We
study about 20 to 25 high tech
areas, one of which is wearable
computers," shrugged a com-
pany spokesperson. - Bob Parks
 THE

N z N

The
ntegrationist vs.
Fortunately for the New arry Summers - Clinton's point man on trade
and inte nance - not only gets it, he's actually being helpful.

The eparatists
By John Heilemann

the democratization and pro-market reforms that are

the very building blocks of the global economy.
In a matter of weeks, America would come to the
rescue. Facing down nationalist-isolationist congres-
sional critics and pusillanimous Europeans at the
When it first became clear International Monetary Fund, Bill Clinton would
that the Mexican peso was going down the tubes, Robert stitch together a US$20 billion loan package to keep
Rubin was in the Caribbean, casting for bonefish, while Mexico solvent. Pulling the strings behind the scenes
Larry Summers was on the line, talking apocalypse. (badgering the IMF, lobbying Congress, sucking down
It was Christmastime 1994, a couple of weeks before a case of Diet Coke a day while pulling all-nighters at
Rubin would take over his new job as Secretary of the Treasury) was Summers, who feared that the immedi-
Treasury, with Summers - then Treasury's undersec- ate dangers of Mexico going belly up - a surge in ille-
retary for international affairs - as his point man on gal immigration, a threat to tens of thousands of
all matters global. For months, officials like Summers American jobs dependent on exporting goods south
had been warning the Mexican government that it of the border - paled beside what might come next.
was headed for trouble, and now trouble had materi- Transnational in scope, driven by information tech-
alized in the form of a full-scale financial crisis. With nology, and a sign of the relative impotence of politi-
doubts growing about Mexico's political and economic cians and central bankers, the near cataclysm in Mexico
stability, the peso was plummeting, and the foreign was, in the words of IMF head Michel Camdessus, "the
capital that had once flooded the country was fleeing. first financial crisis of the 21st century." Summers, a
Suddenly, Mexico was on the brink of bankruptcy. fast-rising young economist with a penchant for pro-
With capital markets increasingly international, nunciamento and a capacity for controversy nearly
linked by T1lines and ruled by traders both stateless equal to his capacity for insight, had recently spear-
and sleepless, a collapse in investor confidence in Mex- headed the international community's support for
ico could trigger a similar collapse in developing coun- Russia and played an important role in the passage
tries all over the world, and this in turn would threaten of Nafta. By all accounts, especially those of his peers
in academia, Summers is one of the most gifted eco-
John Heilemann is national affairs editor at Wired. nomic minds of his generation. His career has been ..

W I RED J UL Y 1 997
 THE NETIZEN

that of a purebred prodigy. Both of his parents are Wired: In the past few months, the critics of global
economists, and two of his uncles, Kenneth Arrow and economic integration - people like William Greider
Paul Samuelson, are Nobel laureates. Summers was a and Richard Gephardt - have been making their case
domestic policy economist for the Council of Economic quite forcefully. You've been trying to take them on.
Advisers in his 20s, became the youngest tenured pro- Explain the debate as you see it.
fessor in Harvard's history at 28, was named chief Summers: The place to start is with a comparison of
economist ofthe World Bank in his late 30s, and, a few the 1920s and the late 1940s, two periods that were in
months after the Mexican crisis and a year shy of his many respects similar to today. Both times America
40th birthday, was promoted by Clinton to deputy sec- was coming off the end of a conflict. Both times people
retary of the Treasury. were weary. Both times people were internally pre-
On Clinton's economic team, Rubin, who spent 26 occupied. Both times there was some resistance to for-
years as the biggest of bigwigs at Goldman Sachs, eign entanglements. Both times there was some sense
brings street - or, rather, Street - smarts, while Sum- that middle-class families were not doing as well as
mers provides the raw intellect. they would like to have been doing. Sound familiar?
The greatest challenge At home, the two of them have In the 1920s, what the United States did was move
urged the president toward fiscal away from internationalism. We were party to the
for the United States is to restraint, and hence toward politi- punitive collection of debts in Germany. We didn't
cal rehabilitation. They have been join or support the League of Nations. We passed the
build a constituency for a consistent force for internation- Smoot-Hawley Tariff. And we made no effort to pro-
alism on questions of free trade vide global leadership. What followed was maybe the
American leadership and and foreign aid, with Summers in 20 darkest years in modern human history - the
particular speaking out against the Depression, hyperinflation in Germany, World War II,
internationalism in a chorus of antiglobalist ranting led the Holocaust. But after World War II, we learned
by author William Greider and a very different lesson. We focused on leadership. We
world where we no longer House Minority Leader Richard passed the GI Bill and the Marshall Plan. We created
Gephardt. At the international the architecture of international financial institutions.
have the Communist level, too, the Rubin-Summers We worked as a consistent force in favor of world
double act has left its mark. After markets and more international integration for 50
threat as a rationale. the Mexican fiasco, it was they years. And despite all the terrible things that have
who pushed successfully for poli- happened, it's been 50 years of remarkable peace and
cies to prepare for, reduce the possibilities of, and prosperity.
maybe even prevent international financial crises. The overwhelming historical lesson is that progress
And in late June of this year, when the leaders of the requires American leadership. History also gives an
industrialized nations trek to Denver for their annual indication of the stakes involved, which go far, far
Group of Seven summit, they will for the first time beyond questions of the mercantile advantage and
discuss the policy implications of emoney and e-com- really go to America's role in the world, and to the
merce - issues that landed on the agenda largely at prospects for the world to stay at peace. Asia today is
Summers' insistence. in many ways like Europe before World War I, with
An outsized figure both physically and mentally, a number of rising powers that are wary of one another.
Summers is known as a man whose regard for his Europe still has tremendous tension over unification
own candlepower is almost as impressive as the can- that has yet to be resolved. Who would have thought
dlepower itself. "Larry Summers is to humility what there would be ethnic slaughter in Europe in the 1990s?
Madonna is to chastity," Wall Street Journal columnist There are profound challenges that depend on US
Paul Gigor once wrote. On two occasions recently, leadership, and US leadership in the economic area
Summers sat down with Wired's John Heilemann to is a part of US security - just as it was in the 1940s
talk about everything from the aftermath of Mexico and the 1920s.
and the volatility of a financial system gone cyber to That's what I like to call the integrationist position.
the question of whether the global economy is render- On the other side, you have what I call the separatist
ing policyrnakers like him more or less irrelevant. position, which offers, I think, three broad arguments
Summers was, as ever, confident to the point of cocki- against the integrationist position. The first is that
ness, but the quality of his conversation made com- somehow this will impoverish Americans; that basi-
plaints about his arrogance seem ... well, small-minded. cally the economic success of others comes at our
Besides, he has a fine sense of humor about himself. expense. But the evidence is overwhelming that this is
After reading Gigot's barb, Summers quipped to his wrong. The reason wages are lower in other countries
wife, "Well, it's not as bad as it could've been: he could've is because productivity is lower. We have much more
said that I'm to chastity what Madonna is to humility." to worry about economically from Germany, where ~

WIRED JULY 1 997 I LLUSTRATION BY SCOTT MENCHIN

 THE NETIZEN

wages are higher than here, than we do from Bangla- for their children. It's that, and not some mythical
desh, where wages are lower. If you ask what the cultural solution, that offers the best prospect for sta-
change has been in the content of trade that comes bility and peace. Now, all you have to do is to look at
from less developed countries, it's only 1 percent of the savings-and-loan crisis, or at rising wage inequal-
GNP in the last 15 years, so it's hard to believe that ity here, or at the Japanese banking failures, or at
this has a lot to do with the tectonic shifts that we levels of unemployment in Europe, to understand
have seen in our wage structure. In any event, what- that we by no means have all the answers. We're not
ever changes have been associated with globalization at the end of economics. We're not at the end of the
have not been due primarily to trade agreements. The business cycle. But I think there are some directional
country where people have the greatest economic fears tendencies for this era that we have identified and are
is China, and we haven't had any trade agreements fairly universal.
with China. Meanwhile, in every trade agreement we The third separatist critique is that America can't
have entered, foreign trade barriers have come down afford to be globalist. George Bush was never more
by far more than American trade wrong than when he said, "We have more will than
In 1982, the Fed could barriers; with Nafta, the ratio was wallet." We're saving nearly a hundred billion dollars
five to one. There just isn't evi- because the Cold War is over, relative to what we were
get 20 major bankers dence to suggest that trade agree- spending on defense. It's hard to believe we couldn't
ments have had an adverse effect have invested $3 billion in responding to forward
in a room and they'd on the prosperity of individual challenges in the international arena, like AIDS, or
Americans. And if you look around the global environment, or narcotics. But in fact, non-
work something out. the world, you see that those with military foreign affairs spending has fallen nearly
protectionist policies have not pros- by haifin real terms in the last 10 years. I think the
You can't do that with pered, to put it mildly. greatest challenge for all of us is to build a constituency
The second argument that sepa- for American leadership and internationalism in a
thousands of separate ratists make is that capitalist eco- world where we no longer have the Communist thl:eat
nomics is a Western affectation, as a rationale.
holders of emerging- and that we have to understand You say that the integrationist position is "under siege"
that cultures are different, and by separatism. In what sense?
markets mutual funds. that the attempt to export the You see globalism under siege in the United States'
Western economic consensus will failure to meet its obligations to the international
produce a backlash. But I think it's extraordinarily financial institutions and the UN; in the questions
difficult to rely on cultural arguments. It was only a that are raised as to whether the president will be able
quarter of a century ago that many sophisticated cul- to get the authority to negotiate further trade agree-
tural observers, including Nobel prize winner Gunnar ments; in European attitudes toward foreign televi-
Myrdal, were certain that Asia would suffer a Malthu- sion and movies; in the reluctance in some quarters
sian famine by the late 1980s; a judgment had been in Japan to permit the stationing of American troops
made that a Confucian culture was fundamentally in Okinawa; in the strengthening nationalist move-
inimical to economic growth. Careful studies compar- ments in Russia and a number of other countries in
ing rapidly growing countries in Asia with less rapidly the former Soviet Union. And the list could go on.
growing countries in South America and Africa reveal What are the stakes? It's very difficult to layout the
that what's common to sustained economic growth scenarios. But I think it's worth remembering how
are economic fundamentals : saving, a price system remote a prospect World War I would have looked in
that works, an outward orientation, the availability 1910, and how remote a prospect World War II would
of capital for entrepreneurs, the existence of a secure have looked in 1934.
system of property rights, education. It's now more than two years since the peso crisis.
There is a tremendous receptiveness around the At the time, you guys in the administration - and you
world to Western economic thinking. It would be a personally - took a lot of heat for the Mexican bailout.
tragedy, just at the moment when these ideas are gain- Do you feel vindicated by history?
ing currency, if there were to be some kind of pullback. I think if we had not acted and Mexico had been
There is every bit as much potential ethnic hatred allowed to default, there is a real chance you would
between the Chinese and the Malays in Malaysia as have seen the same kind of effects that followed the
there is between ethnic groups in Africa. The reason Mexican default in the early 1980s. It would have meant
that has not resulted in mass slaughter in Malaysia a cessation of flow of capital for many years to many
is that people have seen their living standards double developing countries.
in 10 years, and then double in 10 years, and then dou- It would also have meant - and this may have been
ble in 10 years, and look forward to vastly better lives the more profound point - a renunciation ofthe 182 ~

WIRED JU L Y 1997
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Smartcards come and Miniaturization seems
smartcards go, but you to be a force of nature
can never underesti- in the digital age, but it
mate the value of a does exact a toll. Let's
good calumet. The Sil- face it, the diminution
ver Palm Leaf is the size of G.I. Joe was a crime.
of a credit card and its But Hasbro is making
neopagan icon looks restitution with a clas-
like a cult symbol, but, sic collection of action
really, it's a pipe. The figures. Appropriately,
patented "pipe/ess" the Mercury Astronaut
design of this svelte sil- stands tall - 72 inches -
ver sucker allows 72 and comes complete
inches of smoke to travel with suit, helmet, gloves,
within a 3-inch body and, yes, dog tags. Other
through the use of an figurines include the
innovative network of Tuskegee Fighter Pilot,
crop-circle corridors. General Patton, and
Just remember, it's for a female Joe - the US
smoking tobacco only. Army Helicopter Pilot.
Silver Palm Leaf smok- Mercury Astronaut:
ing pipe: US$30 to U5$29.99. Hasbro Inc.:
$40. Silver Palm Leaf: +7 (407) 4378697.
+7 (475) 4877870,
on the Web at www
.silverpalmleaf.com/.
If there's one person
who's got a good shot
at making a splash in
Games from Tiger always networked gaming, it's
tended to follow the Nolan Bushnell (Atari
high tech pack, settling notwithstanding). And
for simple, LCD-based his company, PlayNet
titles that underwhe/med Technologies, may do
in the face of glitzier just that. The P/ayNet
competition. That's why Web terminal supports
game.com is a bit of a voice-activated chat,
surprise. Tiger melds the multlp/ayer games, dat-
Game Boy and Newton, ing and personals soft-
combining a stylus and ware, as well as Web
touchscreen with a sta- browsing and email.
ble of cartridges based The pay-per-play sys-
on popular game titles tem is currently wooing
and built-in personal the hospitality mar-
organizer software. It's ket, but the system
even got an optional could pave the way
modem cartridge for for a revolution in the
accessing email and the gambling segment of
Net (text only). Maybe gaming. P/ayNet Web:
the revolution really games start at US25
is ubiquitous now. cents; Web browsing
game.com: US$69.99. $ 72 per hour. P/ayNet
Tiger Electronics: Technologies Inc.:
+7 (847) 973 8700. +7 (272) 586 2400.

W I RED J U LY 1997
 ,r
I
I

••
- .. •-

day s

celebrating
ANNE APPLEBAUM 0 GARY L. BAUER 0 ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

ELIAS CRIM 0 CHESTER E. FINN, JR. 0 JOHN H. FUND" FRANK J.

GAFFNEY, JR. 0 JAMES K. GLASSMAN 0 JOHN C. GOODMAN

RICHARDN. HAASS <> MARK HElPR1N 0 JAMES C. HUMES ·o LAURA

A. INGRAHAM 0 PETER JAY 0 RANDALL KENNEDY CHARLES R.

KESLER <> WENDY KAMINER 0 D.E.BRA KNOPMAN 0 CELINDA LAKE

JAMES R. LILLEY 0 ROB LONG 0 GEORGE MCGOVERN 0 STEPHEN

MOORE<> PEGGY NOONAN o RICHARD PIPES 0 RON POLLACK

HUGH B. PRICE 0 LISA SCHIFFREN 0 ROBERT J. SHAPIRO 0 PAUL

SIMON o. TONY SNOW 0 PETER SPENCER 0 MAUREEN S.

STEINBRUNER 0 NADINE STROSSEN 0 FAREED ZAKARIA

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Inteliectua lCapital.com is a service mark of A252 Digital Projects,lnc.
In the quest for ergo- Known in some circles as
nomic bliss, there's always The Cube, RadioShack's
room for another Input portable AMIFM radio
device. Felix combines has its own agenda. Pri-
aspects of trackballs, mary colors and easy-to-
mou.e., and touchpads use dials mock the sleek
to make a pointing device curves and miniaturized
unlike any you've seen. design of other wireless
Essentially a mou.e you receivers. Every inch
drive with your finger, of the 12-208 seems
thl. tool roam. a 1-lnch- a minor miracle as it
square area. It also auto- emits a surprisingly rich
matically adjust. to sound. Light and small-
the .Ize of your monitor, ish, this little fella trav-
so you're always In con- els where you travel
trol. Let your fingers and probably further.
do the walkln,. Felix: The 12-208 comes with
USS".'S (Window. a 12-inch antenna and
3.1 or '5 only). Altra: a carrying handle so
+1 (307) 32.1342, on the cute you won't be able
Web at www•• ltr •• com/. to let the darn thing go.
12-208 AMIFM radio:
US$14.99. RadioShack:
(800) 843 7422.

Slowly but surely, those

Polaroid Land Cameras
line. alway. have become collector's
seemed too wimpy. items. And now the com-
The Enga,er GS III Is pany's taken that origi-
neither. It's battery- nal design and added an
powered and contains electronic flash, an auto-
a piezoelectric oscilla- matic variable speed and
tion ,yro that controls shutter system, and auto-
the chopper's movement, focus. Pop in a pack of
makin, It easier for Polaroid 600 High Defin-
novice. to fly. Secause of ition film, and you'll see
the battery, the En,ager how clear the 690's
Is lI,ht, but It flies only lens is. This
up to three minutes at a single-lens
time - keep extra batter- reflex camera folds to
Ie. on hand. The Engager a slim 1.16 inches, and
a/.o come. with a four- if that's not enough,
channel transmitter affix the close-up attach-
and extra rotor sets. ment for some one-to-
En,.,er GS III E-770: one instant gratification.
¥S7,000 (US$46S). Polaroid 690: US$399;
Keyence Corp.: email close-up attachment
[email protected] •• co.jp, $49.95. Polaroid Corpo-
on the Web at www ration: (800) 343 5000,
.k.y.nc•• co.jp/hobby on the Web at www
/hobbye.html. .polaroid.com/.

WIRED JULY 1997 li12

 Telegraph Electric Car Movies Color Televis ion

Cordless Telephone Laptop Computer CD-ROM Chat Rooms

Mite Step
Smaller than a subcom- You got the Nike waffle
pact, yet spacious, prac- and air soles. You got
tical, and able to leap your cross trainer and
small curbs in a single your odor-eaters. Now
bound, the A-Class is .... you got Reebok. The
Mercedes's new vision DMX Run shoe has a
of the auto. The car 10-chamber cushioning
combines aspects of the system in the sole that
compact and mini-van pushes air between the
classes, while offering forefoot and heel, when
plenty of safety features and where you need it.
and high tech assistance. The heel's impact forces
Its unique sandwich air into the forefoot; as
chassis is designed to it comes down, the air is
accommodate batteries pushed back to the heel.
and fuel cells in future Expect to see a lot of this
drive systems. Too bad ~ shoe, even if you spend
you'll only find it in most of your time exer-
Europe. A-Class: Price cising your TV remote.
not available. DMX Run: US$ll O.
Mercedes-Benz: Reebok International
on the Web Ltd.: on the Web at
atwww. www.reebok.com/.
mercedes
-benz.com/. Fist
Every joystick is differ-
Compression ent. Not better, really -
Digital cameras just built for another
are convenient, but subset of games and
adding a little video can gamers. The Glove offers
be extremely compli- a more immersive con-
cated, especially if you troller, one that forces
want to shoot outside. you to get your body
Well, Hitachi's got an into the action. It fas-
MPEG camera that will tens to the right hand
shoot up to 20 minutes and inputs button com-
of MPEG-l full-motion binations from all five
video at a resolution of fingers. The Glove also
352-by-240 pixels. The ~ employs a proprietary
MP-EG1A will also take wrist-sensing technol-
about 3,000 JPEG stills ogy to measure x and y
(704 by 480 pixels). And axis movement. The
everything's stored on a Glove is being offered
260-Mbyte PC card. If for PlayStation, N64,
this takes off, Web pages and Saturn. The Glove:
will be rife with video, .... US$89.95. Reality Quest
and we'll have some real Corporation: +1 (303)
bandwidth problems. 7722334, on the Web at
MP-EG1A: US$2,499.95. www.theglove.com/.
Hitachi Home Electron-
ics: +1 (770) 279 5600, Thanks to Marla Auf-
on the Web at www muth, Megumi Ikeda, Rick
.mpegcam.net/. Fiscina, and Wired Japan.

W I RED J U L Y 1 997
 new

Merchandise
d ail y *

*2 patents every 24 hours.

Working 'round the clock to bring you fresh Bell Labs innovations.

Just in: New Internet Telephony Servers. Enable calls over Net using

ordinary phones/faxes (elemedia™ adds great sound).

Plus, 56 Kbps modem chip sets. Can make accessing Net over regular

phone lines 2 x faster. Also in stock: better-sounding wireless systems;

new longer-range cordless phone. More breakthroughs on the way.

(Tomorrow, the day after, etc.)

"
··
,.
0
.. "
.

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Be" ubs Innovations , .
600 Mountain Avenue
Murray Hill, NJ 07974.0636
http;IIWWW.lucent.com
j-888-4-Lucent

We make the things that make communications work.'"

C1997 lucent Technologies
 Antiporn PusfmeJr
Cathy Cleaver is the all-American censor next door.

perfect for the job. "I'm not off-

putting," Cleaver admits matter-of-
factly. Indeed, Jesse Helms she ain't.
If her demeanor suggests more of
a soft-spoken Southern belle than
an inside-the-Beltway pund it, chalk
it up to her upbrin ging in Sa int
Petersburg, Florida, where Cleaver
first formed the ideology that has
made her one of the most influen-
t ial opin ion shapers in the country.
It was later, she says, that her
antipornography views began to
take hold. "I got interested in porn
after I saw it nearly ru in people's
lives," she says. "I've seen marriages
break up when men became obses-
sed with porn. I've seen men whose
use of porn landed them in jail.
I've seen women who've suffered
because they've been compared
to airbrushed nudes."
Cleaver's style is an obvious asset
to her cause - her healthy golden
looks make it all but impossible
for critics to trace the roots of her
anti porn sentiment to a lack of
personal allure. Cleaver seems to
understand the importance of that
perception, emphasizing that she's
no schoolmarm ."People who are
against porn are not against sex,"
"L ast year the Boston Coalition for Judeo-Christian value system upon she procla ims."Sex is a good thing!"
Freedom of Expression gave me which it is built." In the process, the Her brand of conservatism may
a lifetime ach ievement award for council has moved to the forefront be warm and friendly, but there are
being a danger to free speech," says of the crusade to support and defend plenty of Internet users who aren't
Cathy Cleaver."1 thought that was the Communications Decency Act, buying her shtick."I've been called
sort of cool. I'm happy that people and Cathy Cleaver has become one every name in the book," Cleaver
aren't dismissing me out of hand."
Cleaver hardly personifies the Her conservatism may be warm and friendly,
classic image of Big Brother. She's but plenty of Internet users aren't buying it.
poised, articu late, and media savvy,
possessing a well-crafted mix of of the most recognizable champions says."l've been called a Nazi, a cen-
plainspoken approachability and of Internet censorship - cropping sor, and a prude."Yet despite the
all-American blond good looks. And up on CNN, Firing Line, and else- criticism, she insists she's doing the
for the last two years, she's been where, as the woman who wants right th ing."lt seems almost silly
putting that letha l combination to protect our kids from porn. When to have to say that I believe in free
to work as director of legal policy the Supreme Court rules on the speech," she says. "I'm not doing
for the Family Research Council - constitutionality of the CDA in the anything to harm the First Amend-
a Wash ington, DC-based advocacy weeks ahead, Cleaver w ill be making ment." Later this summer, the US
group devoted to promoting "the the rounds to spin her "family val- Supreme Cou rt w ill decide whether
traditional family unit and the ues" interpretation of the decision she's right. - Mary Elizabeth Williams
for millions of TV news viewers.
Her soothing persona makes her

WIR E D JU L Y 1 997
iBM and Sol iJi!an~ lor a sma:! planet a'e I!~defna:k.~ (lllill~rf1?-ti()na: Business Machines Ccrporat!011 in (1)1) Ur,:ted Stiites ;H),1/c, n\!H:r G!'I\mtries. Ott1er (:{)mpany.pt"oduGi and service fiames may lie 18(lf)!l1arks or service mark) oi oliler'S.@199? :8\-1 Corp
 Each and every day, thousands of It takes a solution. The good news
businesses build their sites on is, a call to IBM can help put
the Internet and wonder: When things in motion. IBM Internet
does the excitement begin? solutions provide a unique

Where are the new customers, combination of technology,

the improved relationships, professional services and lmow-

the lower overhead? Surprise, how that's enabling a world

surprise. You can't expect it to of e-business opportunities,

happen automatically. changing the way business is

done. Here are a few customers

already reporting results:

Japan Airlines: uses Internet

reservations to boost ticket

revenue by $4 million.
NHI!: online store attracts more

than a million hits per month.

Arena di Verona: online ticketing

" . the expands opera house audience.

Supervox: French wholesaler

finds an $8 million opportunity

in previously untapped market.
Find out how the Internet can
transform your business.

Just drop by www.ibm.com/

Internet! internetsolutions or give us a

call at 1800 IBM-7080, ext.

nowwhat?~~
NCOl, for our free brochure

on commerce solutions.

--...- -
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solution
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Solutions for a small planet'"

f II~'~)
II!III~_,
; T
hought Muzak met a grisly death in an elevator shaft? No such
luck. Muzak, the 62-year-old company famous for foisting "101
Strings" on helpless dental patients, has made the leap to cyberspace.
But online, the violins have been jettisoned, and Muzak's Enso
/~
I
Audio Imaging division is carrying the company into the future.
I~IIIIIII ~~ Enso's MusicServer (www.muzak.comlensol) provides RealAudio
I~II:III Ihi
I
promotional samples - from Tanya Tucker to Marilyn Manson - for
IIII~IIII online music retailers like CDNow, Tower Records, and Microsoft
Music Central. Enso division president Bill Koenig says a process
II~~~ I of "identifying the hooks" isolates 30 seconds of music to offer "the

j ~~~) best possible sense of what the song is about."

Online or off, Muzak isn't likely to disappear any time soon, so you
I
might as well point, click, and succumb. - Brangien Davis

i Most VaJUmJalllIfe ~rogrammer

nderpal Bhandari grew up in In 1995, two NBA teams used become a source of entertain-
Calcutta, where the kids play Advanced Scout. By the end of ment for fans. "Beyond the Box
cricket, not basketball. But today, this season, 18 teams were using Score" on the NBA homepage
the IBM researcher has become it, and the rest now say they makes predictions about upcom-
an NBA superstar by transforming intend to incorporate it into their ing games based on Advanced
the way coaches prep for games. training routine. (IBM is an NBA Scout data. He's also developing z
Bhandari's brainchild is a sponsor, so coaches get the soft- a simplified version of the pro- Anacronym An acronym so old that >

data-mining application called ware free .) "It's hard to just look gram for television announcers. no one knows what it stands for any-
Advanced Scout that works more. Common examples include ASCII,
NKVD,SPQR.
like a coach's Magic Eight Ball.
Cobots Collaborative robots designed
Ask the software a question -
to work alongside human operators.
any question - and an answer
Prototype cobots are being used on
appears from the murky depths
automobile assembly lines to help guide z
o
of raw statistics. Queries can be
heavy components like seats and dash-
general, such as "Under what cir-
boards into cars so they don't damage
cumstances do the Chicago Bulls auto body parts as workers install them.
outscore the New York Knicks?" Salinger Syndrome A tendency
The program cooks up an answer to believe everything you read on the
by mining for patterns in moun- Internet. Coined soon after former presi-
tains of play-by-play data. On dential press secretary Pierre Salinger ~
o
January 21, for example, the Bulls came forward with information he z
>
beat the Knicks by one point. But retrieved from the Internet purporting -<

the Bulls outscored the Knicks thatTWA Fl ight 800 was downed by
by 23 points when Brown, Jordan, a US Navy missile.
Pippen, Kukoc, Oakley, and Ewing SUVurbs Middle-class neighborhoods z
o
were on the floor. Coaches can that contain high concentrations of z
-<

then view CD-ROM videoclips to at a statistic and understand From there, he plans to move trendy four-wheel -drive sport utility "
determine why the combination why it's important," says Sacra- onto the ice - IBM is working vehicles (SUVs).
with the NHL to design a version Voice Novel A voicemail message "z
~
that goes on forever. o
Advanced Scout data-mining software of Advanced Scout for hockey. o
r

is like a Magic Eight Ball for NBA coaches. Ultimately, Bhandari wants to Tip 0' the cat in the hat to Gerry DeSeve,
bring data-mining to the masses. Laura Mitchell, and Eric Sjogren.
proved so deadly. Turns out, the mento Kings video coordinator "The underlying algorithm is
key factor was the Bulls' smaller, Chris Marek. "Advanced Scout generic," he says. "It's applicable - Gareth Branwyn [email protected])
quicker lineup, with Brown at lets us see specifically why we to other domains, such as man-
>
o
point guard and Kukoc at power had an advantage or why we ufacturing, insurance, or retail
-<
forward. were at a disadvantage." companies." - Michele Glade :::o
r
Bhandari's software has also

WIRED JU L Y 1997 DO
 Are all your talents working in concert?
An impressive range of skills vital components: strategy, tions don't perform. Unless they
can be found in almost every technology, process and people. perform together.
organization. The challenge, of With vast experience in each
course, is getting them to per- of these areas, we can help you
form harmoniously. seamlessly blend individual ANDERSEN
Andersen Consulting works strengths with collective goals.
to help synchronize all of your Because these days, organiza- CONSULTING
Visit our web site at http://www.ac.com.
 No[))st~
R on Higgins wants to send
your data on a fast Hawai-
to Fiber
ian vacation. A Silicon Valley region is a staging area for US
start-up specialist whose cred- military forces in the Pacific.
its include Radius and General Hawaii also enjoys the protec-
Para metrics, Higgins has created tion of US intellectual property
an alternative Internet back- laws, something that appeals
bone that exploits underuti- to multinationals. Finally,
lized fiber bandwidth to directly Hawaii's geographic location -
link ISPs in prominent business 12 hours behind Europe, 6
locales. Called Digital Island, hours behind New York, 3 hours
the system offers one-hop data behind San Francisco, and 6
transmission between local hours ahead ofTokyo - neatly
ISPs via a server hub based in staggers peak usage times.
Honolulu. Designed to serve corpora-
Why Hawaii? The Internet's tions that need to move bits for Digital Island's high-speed fiber-rich environment like
forest of routers can be mad- quickly, Digital Island aspires performance guarantee and Guam. Worldwide, Internet
deningly slow, with the worst to become the FedEx of net- promises of superior service. backbone upgrades could
bottlenecks occurring at net- working by expediting data Higgins & Co. already have boost overall network perfor-
work access points (NAPs) in transmission and providing a few big fans. Vanguard Ven- mance and diminish Digital
the continental United States. logistics services. Data vaults, ture Partners has invested in Island's competitive advantage.
the project, and Digital Island And unlike bigger carriers,
Digital Island is designed to expedite chief technology officer Allan Digital Island doesn't own its
data transmission between locallSPs. Leinwand is a former engineer infrastructure. Yet Higgins is
at Cisco Systems. Cisco itself undeterred."Our main advan-
Hawaii is an ideal spot to I-phone connections, Web sites signed on as the first customer tage is that we're first to mar-
bypass the NAPs because with heavy international traffic, in late 1996. ket," he says. "From the day
plenty of transoceanic fiber and secure e-commerce are Higgins's play is no sure the long distance companies
passes through the Aloha State likely applications, but the pos- thing. Competitors could dupli- decide to decide, it'll be years
- in no small part because the sibilities remain wide open. cate his operation in a similarly until they actually turn on
Higgins is betting that big their network." - Alex Salkever
companies will pay big bucks

Home Video
Most requested bridal songs at weddin gs
ome video has always
1. "Because You Loved Me," Celine Dion
2. "I Swear," John M. Montgomery/AII-4-0ne
H been a crude, oddball

3. "Everything I Do," Bryan Adams innovation often comes from strange places.
4. "Have I Told You Lately," Rod StewartNan Morrison At the Visions of US video contest sponsored by
5. "Keeper of the Stars,"Tracy Byrd the American Film Institute and Sony Electronics,
"Wonderful Tonight," Eric C1apton Tinseltown mavens go looking for creative geniuses
trapped in low-end technology. .
7. "Unchained Melody," Righteous Brothers
The work may be done on the cheap, but cham-
8. "Can't Help Falling in Love," Elvis Presley
pion Visions videos have kicked off successful
9. "I Cross My Heart," George Strait careers. In 1985, an obscure comic named Tim
10. "Power of Love," Celine Dion Allen won the grand prize for an 11-minute comedy
Note: Current as of March 10,1997. about a family's fight to save its lakeside home
Source: Determined by a vote of disc jockeys who read Mobile Beat: The DJ from big business. This year's panel of judges
Magazine (www.mobilegeat.co~/).
includes Francis Ford Coppola and Kathleen
- Gareth Branwyn Kennedy, so fast forward to www.afionline.org
IvisionsI97Ivisions.home.html in August to meet
their home video favorites for 1997. - Steven Kotler

WIRED JULY 1997 f.i2

 he television age is coming to the Bloomington
T an end in Bloomington, Indiana.
Raised on sweet corn and pot roast,
factory will move
to Juarez, Mexico,
the down-home Midwesterners who on April 1, 1998.
work at the local RCA plant could be On April Fools' Day,
the parents of the cutting-edge kids fully 2 percent of the
in Silicon Valley. And like the lime- town's workforce will
stone under their feet, these working walk off the .set of a
class Hoosiers have dissolved into drama that has aired
the American landscape through in Bloomington for
the labor of their hands: the more generations. Many,
than 65 million RCA televisions like 51-year-old Ken-
they've assembled at the factory neth Wagner, have
on South Rogers Street. worked the same job
Bloomington's TV assembly line for more than 30
- the world's first color television years. "I started at
manufacturing facility and still the RCA on November 15,
largest on the planet - first came 1965,"Wagner recalls. Now a father between mounting debt and politi-
to life 57 years ago. More recently, of four, he has seen friends retire cal pressure within France, Thomson
as their wages crept ever higher, from the same factory where they'd was forced to cut costs. With a US$17
the factory's 1,100 workers began worked since high school. differential in hourly wages between
Bloomington and Juarez, the com-
The world's oldest and largest color television pany decided to head south.
factory closes its doors on April Fools' Day, 1998. "The largest single factor is labor
costs," says David Hakala, vice presi-
to think of themselves as high tech Things have been shaky at the dent of American manufacturing
assembly operators - until they plant since 1986, when RCA was operations for Thomson, noting that
became the most highly paid tele- purchased by General Electric. The the move will save $350 million over
vision makers in the United States. following year, GE's consumer elec- the next 10 years.
But the blue-collar dream ended tronics brands were bought by "I'm going to miss the people, and
last February, when Thomson Con- Thomson SA, based in France. Despite maybe the job too," says Wagner.
sumer Electronics (which makes the accumulating some 20 percent of "It's going to be hard to find a job
RCA product line) announced that the US television market, Thomson at 52, but things'li work out. They
never managed to make its new always do." - Joe Nickell
acquisition profitable. Squeezed

Bearish on _~
ID ored by blue chips? Instead, try stocking up on Sharon Stone
D or cornering the market on Tiger Woods. And be sure to unload
your shares in Howard Stern before he fades from the limelight.
Your brokers are William Fisher and Matthew Lederman, co-
creators of Rogue Market (www.roguemarket.com/j. where Wall
Street meets Entertainment Tonight. Rogue Market starts players
with US$10,000 in funny money and invites them to buy and sell
shares in more than a thousand public figures, including athletes,
actors, elected officials, and authors.
Share prices rise and fall w ith demand. Madonna's stock sky-
rocketed before the release of Evita and fell precipitously when
the film did poorly at the box office. "People take it seriously, and
they're fanatical about their holdings," says Fisher. Launched in
January, Rogue Market now boasts 9,000 regular traders. Mean-
while, Fisher and Lederman hope to cash in by selling banner ads
on the site. - Matt Richtel

W I RED JU L Y 1997 66
 Ever see something so
beautiful that you fail to
realize how intelligent it is? 1997
VEHICLE
If not, you've probably never EXPERIENCE
STUDY
seen Dodge Avenger.
And now it's going to be even
tougher to get past Avenger's "·;:,";-::··:;;":~·\-·.~_ t~=~~~.'._, ....

great looks, because for 1997 ~<~~' "

we made numerous styling

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fascias, new fog lamps and a new recently found that the
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automatic transmission, with
So to maintain that crucial Quality Award™ for Best Ownership
selectable overdrive for enhanced
esthetidintellectual balance, we made Experience is strong evidence of
fuel economy when on and more
this smart automobile even more Avenger's overall appeal.
power when off • driver and • Avenger is
intelligent. Consider: elevated rear front passenger airbags backed by our
seating to give people in back a better • available anti-lock brakes Customer One
view of the road up front· split/folding • optional remote keyless entry with Care™ 3-year
rear seats • enough interior space for personal alarm· In research measuring or 36,OOO-mile •
five adults· 2.5L, V-6, SOHC, 24-valve total quality, bumper-to-bumper warr~~ty and ~Y36
engine (available on base and ES)
Roadside Assistance. See limited
• available lock-out protection that prevents
warranty & restrictions at dealer.'
power door locks from being
Excludes normal maintenance & wear
locked inadvertently when
items. For more information, call
keys are left in the ignition
1-800-4-A-DODGE or visit our
• remote trunk and fuel door
Web site at http://wwwAadodge.com

Avenger I@I The New Dodge

release·4-wheel
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rigid body structure for handling Always use seat be/1.\'. Remember a backseat is the safest placeJor childre,n. .. Aven?~~~IOO'ed in Sg;r;s Ciftar.\ t~ndfiersf~':~ ~f~~!;~s~~~.Of! s
1997 Vehicle Experience SlUdylll sun1eyed 31.521 Oct. -Nov. new vehIcle buyers oJ + mesa er e Ir
MEDIA 100e xs with HDRfx': It's unlr&ft
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REA LIT Y C H E C K Edited by David Pescovitz

The Future of Radio

You've heard the hype. In 1895, Guglielmo Marconi made the first mile- ican listens to broadcast radio approximately
We asked the experts. long radio transmission with his wireless tele- 3 hours and 45 minutes every weekday. Radio is
Here's the real timetable. graph, opening tremendous new possibilities everywhere, and targeting an audience is simply
for communication. A century later, Terry Gross a matter of choosing the right beat or words. No,
informs us from one end of the dial while Howard video didn't kill the radio star. Wired asked five
Stern insults us from the other. The average Amer- experts to tune in to the future of radio.

Digital Audio Broad- Internet Radio Eclipses Pirate Radio The Death
casting Catches On Traditional Radio Legalized of Radio
Mellgren 2000 unlikely unlikely unlikely
Sakai 2003 2012 unlikely unlikely
Whitaker 2005 2002 2007 unlikely
Williams unlikely 1998 unlikely unlikely
Yoder 2020 unlikely unlikely unlikely
Bottom Line

Ken Mellgren
manager of affiliate rela-
2011

The FCC proudly prom-

ises us digital television
2007

With the availability of

online audio streaming
unlikely

Currently, micropower -
"pirate radio" operators
unlikely

Fifty years after TV hit our

living rooms, the AM and
tions for AP All News by 2006, but what about technology, it's easy to can't get a license even FM bands are still thriv-
Radio CD-quality radio? "It's play DJ. ls anyone listen- if they'd like to. The FCC ing. Whi le our experts
the chicken-and-egg ing? Not during drive does not grant license~ point out that technolog-
Dean Sakai scenario,"Whitaker says. time. But more and more for stations broadcasting ical advancements may
station resource manager "Once manufacturers people will be clicking less than 100 watts, and, alter the economics of
for ElectricViliage build the digital receiv- rather than tuning in at pirate operators risk , broadcasting and pro-
ing capability into every the home or office, says fines of up to US$l a/adoJ.
gram distribution, they
Rodney A. Whitaker receiver, and it is not a Williams. According to for each day they broap- also agree with Mellgren,
director of Internet premium price feature, Sakai, Internet radio and cast and possible crimi- who says that "if we pro-
services for KSJO/KUFX/ it will catch on." Indeed, traditional radio will nal sanctions of up to vide programming and
KBAY Yoder comments, "most eventually merge:"Radio $100,000. So what ? asks audio product that peo-
people are happy with will become digital, and Williams. "Frankly, I don't pie really want, there will
David Williams FM-quality audio, so it the receivers (clients) see the legalization of always be a market and
director of engineering will be the manufactur- will make pulls through pirate radio as havinp a way to profit from pro-
for San Francisco Bay ers, not the listeners, cellular technology." merit that outweighs viding it." Even if radio
area ARS stations who make digital broad- Meanwhile, Mellgren problems with the idea does eventually die as
casting a reality." But believes that Internet itself or the regulati~n a source of commercial
Andrew Yoder even then, Williams says, radio w ill remain a niche of it."What's a med i'a income in the United
author of Pirate Radio: the ball will be in the format, "appealing to hacker to do? Stay under- States, Yoder has faith
The Incredible Saga of broadcasters' court. those who want to listen ground, it seems."Over- that the medium will
America's Underground, "Bitching, complaining, to sporting events, local all, FM frequency space always exist as the voice
Illegal Broadcasters moaning and groaning hometown radio shows, is tight and the major of the people. "Internet
by the broadcasters' specific personalities, broadca sting organiza- access is easy to restrict,
powerful radio and tele- or topics not otherwise tions will be su re that and newspapers, maga-
vision political action available." Besides, Yoder any push for low-power, zines, and zines can be
committees could send points out, "radios are unlicensed radio is destroyed, but radio can
digital audio broadcast- cheap; computers aren't . squashed," Yoder says. pass any boundary for
ing in the same direction And computers involve As a result, Sakai thinks, hundreds or thousands
as AM stereo - a tech- a learning curve; radios "these enterprising peo- of miles," he says. "It's
/. nology that was too don't." pie are not bothering unstoppable."
r'
little, too late." with trying to change
existing rules but are ~~
"'.
forging ahead on the ~
>
Internet."

""
v

"'
""'
"
W I RED J U LY 1 997 III 0
 BALANCED NUTRITION
LAS TIN G ENE RGY
1M

Y\ote. <le.e.-liGious
Y\e.W fl<\Vor

\
 RAW D A T A Edited by Tim Barkow

Wireless LANs Java's Development

Despite the postulated potential of wireless LAN equipment, Although it's still only being felt on the Web through anima-
it's unlikely that corporate computer networks will forgo wires. tions and scrolling text, everyone's talking Java. And slowly
Although this Yankee Group research was conducted in 1996, but surely, you should begin to see it in action. The language
before the FCC enacted the much-hyped U-NII unlicensed wire- has quickly eclipsed both C/C++ programming tools and appli-
less band, that doesn't change the fact that integrators are experts cation-development tools like Visual Basic. The only question
at wires, while wireless presents a whole new set of problems. left is whether anyone will build a Java app that's truly killer.
SO UR CE: THE YANKEE GROU P (WWW.YANKEEGROUP.(OMI) SOU RCE: PC DATA

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1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 12/95 3/96 6/96 9/96 12/96
YEAR D AT E

Searching for a Search Engine Software Sales

The only way to navigate the Web is with one of the many search What are you paying for your software? The cost of different
engines that each tout an index of millions of pages. But not every- types of software is still fluctuating, but the general shift is down-
thing gets included - and many of the things you'd expect to find, ward. Reference, personal, and educational titles all saw major
you won't. A search on AltaVista reveals the discrepancies. Sites price drops in 1996, while games - after previously leading the
with static content have a larger number of indexed pages than way in reductions - remained flat. Business titles are hanging
sites like espn.com, which change daily. tough at higher prices, thanks to deep corporate pockets.
so U RCE: A LTAVIS TA (WWW . ALTAVISTA . DIG/TAL.COMI) SOURCE: PC DATA

well.com
I
eff.org
I
espn.com

0 ....- -
o 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000 US$20 AND UNDER $30 TO $49.99 $50AND UP
INDEXED PAGES PRICES

W I RED JULY 19 9 7
 e it to the

sweating.
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 GEEK PAGE

Teaching Computers to Listen

Hidden Markov models and pattern recognition.
W e spend .much of our lives pattern - a sound bite lasting formula, a vector value is pro- Markov model-friendly vectors,
processing patterns - about 10 milliseconds - from duced - 10 milliseconds of the and these values are used to
listening to speech and music, the current state and making phoneme \h\. repeatedly refine the model's
interpreting scrawled notes, a transition to another state. So, states describe the fea- statistics.
spotting cues in someone's These steps are then repeated tures of the chunks of a pattern. Trained hidden Markov mod-
body language. But even with until the entire word has been What about the transitions? els can be used to generate pat-
all this expertise, pronounced. In our model, two transitions terns in the ways we've seen.
By Matt Jones it's extremely diffi- Since these are mathemati- can result from each state. However, they are much more
cult to express those patterns cal models, each chunk of the First, there's the link to the widely used in pattern recog-
in words. Just try to write a final output is represen ed by next distinct state - from \h\ nition. Let's assume that our
straightforward description a set of numbers called a vec- to \e\, for example. This kind "hello" model is part of a large
of how you sign your name - tor. Each number relates to a of transition models the rela- set of word models. In current
you'll find it nearly impossible. distinct feature of the pattern. tionship between the states. speech-recognition research
Unfortunately, the difficulties For speech applications, vec- Less intuitively, there's also (svr-www.eng.cam.ac.uklj, this
in recognizing these types of tors measure features such as a self-transition, in which the set is huge - tens of thousands
patterns have limited the capa- loudness, pitch, and frequency. model returns to the state it of words are modeled.

I bility of computers to make

sense of our world. Patterns
But hidden Markov models are
not dumb, digital recorders
just left. The need for the self-
transition makes sense if you
In this case, when a person
speaks, to identify the word
C0~ cannot be explicitly coded. Not or synthesizers. Each state is remember that each piece of they've spoken, we calculate

1 even in Java.
If we look at patterns with
capable of generating a wide
range of vectors. For example,
output is extremely short (10
milliseconds) and if you take
the probability of each model
to generate the unidentified
C0~ a mathematical eye, however, if we activate the first state into account that some people speech pattern. Imagine that
L things get much easier. This
insight was inspired by work
often enough, it will produce
vectors for all the ways in
speak more slowly than others.
To describe slower examples,
the word spoken was "wired."
However many times we acti-
CD~ carried out long before the which \h\ can be pronounced. our model has to generate vate the "hello" model, it will
i digital era. About 100 years ago, Probability theory is what more than one output from never generate anything that

8~
Andrei Andreyevich Markov, a makes this model work. To a state. So, when we run our comes close to the "wired"
professor of mathematics at help understand this process, model the first time, it might pattern, and its probability
L Saint Petersburg University we can "visualize"the speech . follow the self-transition from matching score will be very
• in Russia, laid the foundation Imagine that you write the the \h\ state 10 times, pro- low. After we process the mod-
I" this "1,.,<110 • for a class of expressive com- word "hello" several thousand ducing 10 \h\ vectors for a els in this way, the highest-
..... 0<4<\, UCh St.t< putational paradigms called times and cut out the letter h drawled "hello." For a very scoring one is taken as the
..... o<4t.ls rnt at hidden Markov models . in each word. If you were to quick utterance, it might only match for the pattern. It's a
th. rho" ......<'s organize similar-looking hs produce three vectors in the simple process, but it uses
SOIA"~. \rCl.Vl.sitioVl.S Say "hello." Now say it again. into various groups, you would \h\ state. p lenty of processor cycles.
Ii "I< '0.<1< -\1l th< And again . Ask others to say find that some piles are larger The amount of time the Speech recognition is not
Cu''rTtW\\' st.t< it as well. You have just gener- than others. Now assume that model spends in any state is the only application of hidden
."tll th< rhOM......t. ated several examples of one you put the cutout letters into governed by probability the- Markov models. By choosing
pattern type. Let's ignore the a bag, closed your eyes, and ory, too. All transitions have appropriate state numbers
is '.ll y ..... 0<4<.1.<4
fact that real people produced removed one piece of paper at a probability - the likelihood and transitions and carefully
• ,,<4 th." Ii" I< to
these patterns and instead a time. You would soon notice that one particular transition selecting vector features, we
-\J-u. .<~t stot< .
take a Markov-oriented view. that the more common forms is selected when the model can apply the modeling frame-
Imagine that a model gen- of h appear more frequently has to make a move. If most work to an amazing range of
erates the sound sequence than the rare scrawls. "hellos" had a short \h\, the pattern types. If you haven't
"hello." Assume, too, that the States generate their output model would be more likely already run across computers
model captures all the subtle from a "bag" of vectors, based to make the \h\-to-\e\ transi- that can turn your handwriting
variations in how the word's on the probabilities of those tion than the self-transition. into text, recognize your face,
phonemes can be spoken. Our vectors. Similarly, each feature All the probability statistics and even spot when you're
model consists of two types of of a vector also has a proba- we've been considering - for tired, you'll soon do so. And
components: states and transi- bility density function. These both vectors and transitions that's just the beginning.• • •
tions. One state exists for each probability functions use two - are computed in a training
ofthe word's phonemes - \h\, statistics - mean and variance phase. For our "hello" model, Matt Jones ([email protected]
\e\, \1\, and \0\ - and transi- - to capture the typical range we would have collected lots .uk) works for the Computing
tions link the states together. in values for a feature. When of examples of people saying Science Interaction Design
The model works simply, gen- these parameters are plugged "hello."The examples are then Centre, Middlesex University,
erating a small piece of the into a standard distribution converted into sequences of London (www.cs.mdx.ac.uk/).

W I RED J U L Y 1 997 1114

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 FOLLOW THE MONEY

Market Corrections
lthough I expected a seri- software, data storage, semicon- early, while small stocks stalled. a $1 billion company a small-
A ous correction this year,
I thought trouble would come
ductors, and semiconductor
equipment - very undervalued.
One-third of the entire gain
in the Nasdaq 100 index for
cap stock, I am raisimg the bar
to about $100 million. Stocks
in the old economy - industrial Only the largest companies like 1995 and 1996 was accounted in the TWIT$ portfolio meet
and mass-production consumer Intel, Microsoft, Adobe, and for by three stocks: Intel, Micro- the new minimum.
stocks - not in the technology Applied Materials were rallying. soft, and Cisco. That phenome-
M· h I h sector. The I knew PC sales were strong and non intensified in the last half Finally, take advantage
By Ie ae Murp y market's vol- expected most PC-related com- of 1996, as mutual fund inves- of the situation
ume and momentum at the panies to report sequentially tors responded to the midyear While technical questions about
end of 1996 convinced me that better March and June quarters. decline by choosing index Intel's production capacity
I wouldn't need to buy protec- In fact, I still predict a strong funds over actively managed remain, earnings at Intel, Sea-
tive puts until the second half year for sales - growing close funds. Microsoft gets 19 cents gate, and Microsoft show that
of the year. to 20 percent over last year. out of every dollar invested in business is strong. The under-
Right idea, wrong time. The In contrast, communications a Nasdaq 100 index fund; Intel lying truth is that PC sales are
Nasdaq 100 ra II ied over 12 per- stocks entered 1997 grossly gets 19 cents, Cisco 5 cents, good and will improve as the
cent in the first few weeks of overvalued and in decline. Most Oracle 4 cents, and MCI 3 cents. year progresses. Semiconductor
So more than 50 cents out of sales, excluding DRAM chips, will
The Wired Interactive Technology Fund (TWITS) every dollar invested in these do well. Communications will
Company Primary Business Symbol Shares Close May 1 ASince Apr 1 Action funds goes into five stocks. resume its 30 percent growth
Adobe Systems Inc. Software ADBE 5,000 411'. + 1'l. hold I should have seen this com- rate in 1998.
Applied Materials Inc. Semiconductor equip. AMAT 4,000 54 y, + 7'Y.. hold
ing when a well-known aggres- The long-term picture for
Diamond Multimedia Multimedia hw DIMD 7,000 6% - 1'!. hold
sive fund manager described technology has not changed.
Infonnix Corporation Database sw IFMX 6,675 7 Y. - 2'Y" buy
his funds by saying, "This one The massive shift from a mass-
Intel Corporation Microchips INTC 1,500 153 Y. + 14 'l" hold
buys large and mid-cap stocks, production consumer economy
LSI Logic Corporation Semiconductors LSI 7,800 39 '1. + 4Y. hold
Macromedia Inc. Multimedia sw MACR 14,000 _ 1"/" hold
but that one only buys small- based on oil to a technology
7'/"
Mattson Technology Semiconductor equip. MTSN 30,000 - 1 hold cap stocks - under $1 billion." economy based on semiconduc-
Octel Communications Voice hw/sw om 5,800 17 - 1% hold Under $1 billion! For years tors will continue to generate
Premisys Communication Inc. Telecom equip. PRMS 17,000 9'Y" + l'Y" hold I bought stocks with market major investment opportunities
Sequana Therapeutics Inc. Biotech SQNA 10,000 12 y" 15/16 hold capitalizations of $35 to $70 for years to come. This is a cor-
Cash Holding 0 million, confident that as the rection; nasty but transient.
Portfolio Value $1,788,484.38 (+ 78.85% overall) + 2.93% companies progressed and Ultimately, it will mean very
legend ThiS fund started With US$l militon on December 1. 1994. We are trading on a monthly baSIS, so profits and losses Will the market cap passed $100 little to your long-term rate
be re.f~cted ~~~hly, With profits reinvested In the fund or in new stocks.
million, the institutions would of return. Take advantage of
TWITS is a model 1997, then proceeded to tumb le of the tech stocks selling at 100 come piling in. 1snickered at the reduced prices ofTWIT$
established by Wired, 15.3 percent to a bottom on times earnings or 20 times sales the $1 billion cutoff point when stocks to the extent that you
not an officia lly
traded portfolio. April 2, before climbing again. were in communications and I should have been listening can; that is the intelligent inves-
Michael Murphy is The correction came earlier than the Internet. I thought these harder. What this seemingly tor's response to a correction .
a professional money
manager who may
I'd expected. Caught off-guard, stocks would have soft March bizarre statement meant is that Believe it or not, before long
have a personal inter- I asked myself three questions: and June quarters due to weak the institutions are managing people will be griping because
est in stocks lilted in Why did it happen? foreign markets. Many compa- so much money, they cannot they did not buy when they
TWITS or mentioned
in this column. Should I change my investing nies preannounced poor quar- afford to look at stocks with had the chance.
Wired readers who process? ters and took a beating. market capitalizations under
use this information Is there a way to take advan- How did the communications $200 or $300 million . A whole TWITS
for investment
decisions do so tage of the situation? sector drag down PC-related class of stocks have been aban- I am going 100 percent invested
at their own risk. The last thing an investor stocks? Momentum mutual doned to the retail network, by buying 24,000 shares of
should do is distill rules from funds suffered sharp drops left to independent brokers Informix, the leader in object
recent experience and blindly when their 100-times-earnings and ind ividuals. And I owned relational database manage-
apply them to the future - this stocks plummeted. When inves- too many of those stocks. ment systems. The market
is rearview-m irror investing. tors started redeeming shares, cap italization is more than
In analyzing market history, you managers who had been run- Next, question your $1 .10 bill ion and the stock
can always find some invest- ning with little or no cash had investing process is down 77 percent from its
ment strategy that worked. And to sell anything they could - The inflows to professional high last September. __ •
just as you do, it stops working. including PC stocks. money managers have been
My second mistake goes back gigantic over the last five years. Michael Murphy is a money man-
First, ask why? to the recovery following the Demographics suggest there ager who publishes the California
The market entered 1997 with market sell-off last July; large will be no slowdown in the next Technology Stock Letter in Half
PC-related stocks - computers, stocks in most industries rallied five. While I'm not ready to call Moon Bay, California.

WIRED JULY 1997

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 D E D U C T I B L E J U N K E T 5 Edited by Jesse Freund

The Current Roundup (see Wired 5.06)

July 13-16 From Printing Press to Computer: The Future of Faith

Neo-Cambrianism Communities in the Information Age; Cambridge, Massachusetts.

July 17-19 Trendwatch: Technology, Society, and Values; San
Francisco. · July 28-31 Europea n Conference on Artificial Life;
Digital space life-forms. Brighton, England.· August 3-8 Siggraph; Los Angeles.· August
8-10 Beyond Hackers on Planet Earth; New York.· August 13-14

F ive hundred fifty million years

ago, during a sudden evolu-
tionary event known as the Cam-
of artificial worlds, this first-time
event seeks to answer three ques-
tions: How did life on Earth evolve?
Online Advertising II; New York.

· IAugust 29-September 1 I Digital Burgess; Banff, Alberta

See information at left.
brian explosion, single-cell life What are the prospects for our
saw a burst of biological diversity, future given the mass extinctions ISeptember 8-14 ! Telecom Interactive 97; Geneva This annual
and complex multicellular organ- perpetrated by humanity? And confab unites top government officials and industry professionals
isms appeared. Many scholars view will bona fide life evolve in digital to discuss issues affecting the telecom industry - such as broad-
band services, online public institutions, and the growth of inter-
the Cambrian milestone as a one- ecosystems?
national electronic commerce. Sponsored by the International
shot deal. Others believe evolu- Tackling these questions is key-
Telecommunication Union, a group that dates back to the tele-
tion periodically undergoes these note speaker Richard Dawkins, graph days, this event heralds a coming of age for the nascent
jump starts. who has long promoted the idea global village. Registration: price unavailable. Contact: +41 (22)
We have entered such an era of that human beings, much like digi- 730 6161, on the Web at www.itu.chl telecoml.
rapid expansion, according to the tal beings, are mere vehicles for
IS..!.p!!..m ber 10:JiJ PCS 97; Dallas With in the next 12 to 18
organizers of Digital information: we carry
months, most of the personal communications services infrastruc-
Burgess, held in DNA and propagate ture will be up and running. Broadband PCS. Paging. Cellular tele-
Banff, Alberta. genetic data, phone. Mobile computing. A slew of applications dot the wireless
They see while artificial horizon . This event, sponsored by the Personal Commun ications
humans as critters house Industry Association, will mix exhi bits and hands-on workshops
potential binary infor- in an attempt to demystify wireless technologies. Registration:
US$695 through August 15, $845 after. Contact: + 1 (805) 654 1397,
hosts for a mation.
on the Web at www.pcia.coml.
wide-ranging Also on
class of arti- hand is biol- !September 11-12 ! lnfoWarCon 7; Tysons Corner, Virginia
ficial beings ogistTom Organized by digital warrior Winn Schwartau and the National
that have Ray, who will Computer Security Association, this conference is intended for law
enforcement officials and corporate security professionals alike.
already colo- talk about The
If you want to know how to detect and combat computer crime,
nized digital Network Tierra,
or learn how cyberterrorists plan to respond, this antiguerrilla gala
worlds. "Life may his online digital is for you. Registration: US$695 . Contact: + 1 (717) 241 3209, ema il
be entering the digi- ecosystem. An evolv- [email protected], on the Web at www.ncsa.comlwarcon7.html.
tal space using humanity able machine, Tierra acts
!September 14-18! ACM Sigcomm '97; Cannes, France Join Xerox
as a surrogate," says organizer like a living organism. With its
PARCers, Bellcore types, and like-minded academics at the preem-
Bruce Damer. "Life in digital space mutating code and recombining inent research conference for data communicatio ns professionals.
will be freed from the confines programs, the system actually Discussions include the first paper presented on IP multicast and
of slow molecular recombination, improves over time, thanks to nat- another on self-similar data traffic. Registration: price unavailable.
free to travel at the speed of light ural - um, artificial - selection. Contact: +33 (4) 93 65 78 25, email [email protected].
and off the planet - as long as Take a trip to Banff and glimpse
Se tember 15 The Third Advanced Surveillance Technologies
there is a receptor out there the Cambrian age of tomorrow. Conference: Cryptography and Internet Privacy; Brussels
somewhere." Registration : US$495 . Contact: + 1 (403) If you believe that law enforcement and intelligence agencies
With speeches by leading-edge 7626180, email arts_info @banffcentre have supported draconian rules and agreements that inhibit tools
evolutionists and demonstrations .ab.ca, on t he Web at www.biota.orgl. of privacy such as cryptography and anonymous digital cash,

AUGUST 22 =~",",-..;;;;;:..J. 19 20 21 22 23 24

Fossil Fuel for Thought then this freedomfest should ring true. Become an Internet rebel
The Burgess Sha le is a rock nental margin of North date ancestors of primates. - or learn how to nab them - at this Electronic Privacy Informa-
formation high in the Cana- America. Buried during Appropriately, Digital Bur- tion Center-sponsored event, featuring speeches by privacy pro-
dian Rockies. More than half an underwater avalanche, gess conference orga nizers vocateurs David Banisar and Simon Davies. Reg istration: US$250.
a billion years old, the fossils the Sha le's fossil bed was have planned a field trip to Contact: + 1 (202) 544 9240, email [email protected], on the Web
found here were discovered preserved under fine mud the Sha le foss il beds, where at www.privacy.orglpi/conferencelbrusselsl.
in 1909 by Charles D. Wal- and anoxic cond itions. As no collecting is permitted
Out on the Range
cott. Today, it's a premier a result, the remarkably and travelers must be accom-
September 23-26 TED Technotainment; New York. Contact: email
paleontological research detai led remnants depict a pa nied by a guide. If you're
[email protected] .· October 11-13 Mixed Messages: Images, Text, and
area, offering a pristine sl ice clear snapshot of t he evol- averse to strenuous hiking,
Technology; Charlotte, North Carolina. Contact: email tcspain@email
of life from the Ca mbrian ution of mu lticellu lar organ- don't worry: an alternate trip
.uncc.edu.· October 12-17 IEEE Conference on Universal Personal
explosion. isms. The Burgess Shale to a loca l museum will un-
Communications; San Diego. Contact: email [email protected].
This hig h mountain pass houses the skeletons of earth plenty of pa leontolog-
was once submerged near precursors to all major life- ica lly interesting artifacts.
the equator on the conti- forms - including the chor- - Jesse Freund. Got a good junket? Email [email protected].

W I RED JULY 1997 Iilo

 u

•
Fresh, inviting and full of promises: the future at Smau is for you to Milan Fair, October 2-6, 1997, 10 am - 7 pm.
harvest. A future where computers, telecommunications and media are
integrated to help us live and work better. Smau is the largest Open days
Information and Communications Technology (leT) exhibition in Italy, (free entrance for forei~n visitors
and the fall's pre-eminent trade show in Europe in this sector. The place on all five exhibition
where you can sample the bounty of new and exciting technologies.
On Thursday 2, Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 October, Smau is
open to everyone. For three days, Smau '97 is your chance to gather all
of digital technology's latest offerings and solutions. New products, Smau: tel +39 (2) 28313.454 - fax +39 (2) 28313.213 - www.smau.iVmageliano
exhibits and conferences for you to get a taste of the future.
On Friday 3 and Monday 6 October, Smau is open to the trade.
For two days, Smau '97 will be reserved exclusively for those in the leT
trade in search of new, fresh business opportunities. Fourteen specializ-
ed areas - as well as seminars and workshops - to make professionals and
business meet.
At Smau '97, the future is ripe. Just reap it.

Smau. Where the future is present.

smau
International exhibition of information & communications technology
7Jes.ryners) mode/s andl.he/as.bion e.hle c.hanyedl.he /oof oj/£e.ir suny./asses l£.rs'year.

And 0 nee a g a in, the 5 un, win dan d 5 ea CO u l d n' tea r e l e 5 S.

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© 1997 Revo, Inc. For mo re in format ion or t he dea ler nea rest you , ca ll 1-8oo-THE- REVO .
UPDATA Edited by Jessie Scanlon

The Human Genome Controversy

C harles Platt reported from the front lines of
the "Evolution Revolution"in Wired 5.01 (page
158). Now a new battle is brewing in the trenches.
project issued its "Model Ethical Protocol for
Collecting DNA Samples," a document that limits
Plltenting and tackles issues of informed con-
While the Human Genome Project attempts to sent. Those wishing to access the HGDP genetic
map "the" chromosomal master key using gene database must sign a contract binding them to
sequences from a small group of primarily North terms set by the donor popUlation.
American and western European donors, the But the ethical protocol has not allayed the
Human Genome Diversity Project, an interna- foundation's fears that once samples have been
tional group still in its early stages, proposes to collected and the information has been made
account for a broader spectrum of genetic vari- available, it will be easy for anyone to patent
Mach This ety by collecting DNA samples from about 500 the sequences - and sell the genetic material
Last fall, we profiled of the world's ethnic groups. to biotech companies or, more sinisterly, create
Cra ig Breedlove as he But so far, the diversity project has been "more population-targeted "gene bombs" as a weapon
was gearing up to break
controversy than project," according to Henry of biowarfare.
the land speed record
("The Fast American Greely, chair of the ethics subcommittee for the Jean Christie, RAFI's director of international
Hero," Wired 4. 11 , page group's North American branch. Just as the liaisons, insists that given the international policy
184). This September, HGDP was getting off the ground, the National vacuum on the subject of genetic patenting, the
Breed love and his rivals Institutes of Health, an unrelated organization, diversity project should be shelved until the
- the Thrust sse team
received a patent on a cell line of a virus derived world community agrees to ban the patenting
led by British world
record holder Richa rd
from the blood sample of a Papua New Guinea of human genetic material. And without interna-
Noble - will meet head- man. Although no human DNA was actually tiona I laws to enforce it, argues foundation offi-
to-head at Black Rock. patented - in fact, the patent was later terminated cer Edward Hammond, even the well-meaning
Both plan to top Noble's - indigenous rights groups were alarmed by the ethical protocol is "too little too late." The foun-
633.47 mph milestone,
very possibility and suspicious of the HGDP dation will lobby the UN General Assembly this
and both hope to go
superson ic - approxi-
agenda. The Rural Advancement Foundation summer in an effort to win support for a World
mately 765 mph. International (RAFI) even accused the diversity Court ruling on the patenting issue.
The 60-year-old project of biocolonialism, declaring that "the Meanwhile, a National Research Council report
Breed love will rebu ild thin veneer of the HGDP as an academic, non- due out this summer may render the question of
and race his third-gen-
commercial exercise has been shattered by the the Human Genome Diversity Project's viability
eration Spirit of America,
US government patenting an indigenous person." irrelevant. An unfavorable assessment means "the
powered by a General
Electric J-79 Series 8 jet That the HGDP had no patent aspirations was North American branch of the project is pretty
engine. Noble's metall ic lost in the ensuing outcry. Greely complains that much over," says Greely.
black Thrust sse will be the foundation "has blamed us for everything Either way, concern over population genetics
driven by fig hter pilot from acne to nuclear war." In an attempt to clear studies and challenges to human gene patenting
Andy Green. Powered
its name and clarify its mission, the diversity will continue to evolve. - Jonas Broth
by twin Rolls-Royce Spey
afterburning turbofan
j ets, the 1O-ton, 106,000-
Insecurity actions out of the state (fu ll text at securities
horsepower beast is
in the Valley courts and into the .stanford.edulreport).
believed capable of 850
mph - if it manages t o Remember Bill Lerach, fede ral system, w here An Apri l SEC report, z
~

the "B loodsucking the Private Secu ri ties on the other hand, con- o
stay on the ground.
Scumbag" (Wired 4. 11, Litigation Reform Act eluded t hat it is too early
Meanwh ile, both
racers face stiff com- page 134) behind Prop- of 1995 already limits to gauge t he effects of
petition from Rosco osition 211? Well, that shareholder lawsu its the reform act and that
~

McG lashan's Aussie ballot measure, wh ich by imposing higher the proposed leg islative z

Invader 11/ and the North

would have made pleading and discovery changes are premature.
z
American Eagle team of
Ca lifornia a haven fo r standards. Plaintiffs' attorneys
Rick Kikes, Les Shockley, securities fraud law- The legislat ion has describe the d raft legis-
and Ed Shadle, either suit s, went down in been sponsored by US lation as just another
of wh ich could capture flames last fa ll. Now Representat ives Anna attempt to keep t he
the high tech industry, Eshoo (D-California) little guy in t he dark by, o
the world speed record ~

if Breed love and Noble victorious against 211, and Joseph Kennedy in Lerach's words,"elim- o

crash. And 50 the q uest has thrown its we ight (D-Massachusetts). inating t he ability of
for Mach 1 continues. behind proposed Preemption support- defrauded investors to
federa l legislat ion. ers cite the resea rch of f ile su it in stat e court ."
"z
The movement for Stanford law professors Of course, t he new law ~
o
un ifo rm standards Joseph Grundfest and wou ld also elim inate ~

v
leg islation - a k a pre- Michael Perino, whose Lerach's ability t o rake ~

emption legislat ion - report calls for "a sys- in millions suing Silicon
woul d fo rce most tematic review of t he Valley compa nies for
securities fraud class preemption issue" securit ies fra ud.

W I RED J U LY 1997 1il4

C Y B ERR I G H T 5 NOW Edited by Todd Lappin www.wired.com/5.07!..~~"!J

Tyranny in the Infrastructure

The CD was ba I .... butPICS may be

Preemptive Blocking
Even before the Supreme Court
I rn a few weeks, the Supreme
Court is expected to strike
down the Communications
that establishes,a consistent
way to rate and block online
cont~nt. Pies doesn't target any?
on government-sponsored Inter-
'net r~ulation schemes. Yet
issues its CDA ru ling, Represen- Decency Act in the name of the pa rticular category of speech. It heyhave overlooked t he most
tat ive Joseph McDade (R-Penn-
First Amendment. No doubt the Instead, private agencies will tmubl ing form of online regu-
sylva ni a) has introduced HR
use PICS to develop their own lation: that imposed by chang-
1180, the Family-Frien dly Inter-
net Access Act of 1997. The bill
By awrence Lessig content rating schemes. The ing the architecture of the Net.
would re quire ISPs to p rovide victory will prompt a great deal Christian Coalition, for example, Software code - more than law
content -screeni ng software "to of celebration. Yet I wonder if could have a rating system, as - defines the true parameters
pe rm it the custom er to limit
we'll be happy in the world the could tile /ACLU. Parents would of freedom in cyberspace. And
access to material that is unsuit-
ab le for children," adding that
decision will leave behind. While then select the content rating like law, lftware is not value-
"such softwa re shall be pro- many think that efforts to "regu- systems they want to use. In neutral.
vided either at no charge or late" speech in cyberspace will this way, PICS is viewpo int- The same point co uld be
for a fee that does not exceed be crippled after the CDA goes "neutral." It doesn't discrim inate made about other cyber rights
th e cost of such software to
down, the Court's ruling may among filters or rating systems; issues. While Bruce Lehman's
such provider." Meanwh ile, Texas
is considering a sim ilar measure
have the opposite effect. it supports the Nazi Party as efforts to expand the legal rights
that would apply on ly t o ISPs Washington pundits expect much as the Jewish Defen se of onl ine copyright holders are
operatin g w it hin the Lo ne Star Congress to propose a "Son of League. currently in limbo, technologists
St ate. CDA" soon after the Court issues However, no technology is such as Mark Stefik from Xerox
its decision. But instead of trying truly neutral, and PICS will have PARC now predict that the Net
For 007 Only to restrict access to a specific an effect. (See "Put on the Red is moving toward t he use of
Am erica's crypto po licy may be categ ory of speech - "indecency" Light," Wired 5.03, page 127.) "t rusted systems" - architect ures
a mess, but Brita in's is a d isaster.
or "pornography" - CDA II will The PICS filter can be imposed that facilitate perfect control
The latest UK encryption pro-
posal makes it clea r t hat t he
likely mandate the deployment at any level of the distributi on over the online use and distri-
Brit ish government doesn't wa nt of technologies that allow par- chain - at the level of the indi- bution of copyrighted material.
its citizen s usin g crypto t ec h- ents t o select the types of vidual user, the proxy server, the But what t hen happens to the
nol ogy. Sect io n 72 of t he plan speech they want to block. By ISp, or the nation-st at e. "Neutral" fai r-use rights the law now guar-
would "prohi bit an orga nization
sh ifting the burden of censor- or not, PICS will have a deva s- antees ? The question is not
from offerin g o r provid in g
encrypt io n se rvices to t he UK
shi p f rom online publishers to tating effect on free speech all whether law will do enough to
public without a license . . irres- individua l users, the legal code over the world. protect intellectual property, but
pecti ve of w hether a cha rge is w on't be the censor anymore; As part of the Web's infrastruc- whether code will do too much .
made for such services," addin g inst ead, software code will do ture, PICS will be an extremely This has prompted University of
that "it may be necessa ry t o the censorial dirty work. versatile and robust censorship Pittsburgh law professor Jul ie
place restrictions on th e adver-
This alternative is often tool - not just for parents who Coh en to pen what others have
ti sing and marketing of such
services." Read all about it at praised as a "private" or "user- want to protect their kids, but called the Cohen theorem: One
www.dti.gov.uklpubsl. empowering" solution to the for censors of any sort. PICS has a right to hack t rusted sys-
indecency problem. URL-block- wi ll make it easier for countries tems in order to defend tradi-
Promoting Privacy ing software such as SurfWatch like China or Singapore to "clean tional rights of fair use.
After a long silence, t he Clinton or Cybersitter, which works by up" the Net; it makes it easier I don't take issue with the
administratio n has released restricting access to specific for companies to control what valu es inherent in any one pa r-
a policy pa per tha t considers
addresses, was the first version their employees can see; it ticula r system of code. My crit i-
ways in w hich Uncle Sa m can
of thi s idea. More recently, in makes it easier for libraries or cism is directed against those
help protect privacy in cyber-
space. The repo rt , "Opt ions response to cyberporn hysteria, schools to prevent patrons wh o thin k about cyber regula-
for Promoti ng Privacy on the the World Wide Web Consor- from viewing controversial sites. tion so lely in term s of "law."
National Information Infra- tium has developed a sophisti- PICS makes censorship easy Laws affect the pace of tech -
structure" (www.iitf. nist.gov
cated technology called the because it embeds the tools of nological change, but the stric-
/ipc/privacy.htm) eva luates pro-
Platform for Internet Content censorship into the root archi- tures of software can do even
posa ls that seek to "maintain
an optimal ba lance between Selection, or PICS. Blocking tecture of online publishing . more to curta il freedom . In
personal privacy and freedom software is bad enough - but As HotWired columnist Simson the long run, the shackles built
of information." (Strangely, the in my view, PICS is the devil. Garfinkel has described it, PICS by programmers may well
study never mentions the word PICS is an HTML standard is "the most effective global constrain us most.• • •
"encryptio n.") Public input is
t hat makes it possible to filter censorship technology ever
welcome - send comments to
bernstein_ m @al.eop.gov by material on the Net. It is not designed." Lawrence Lessig (Iessig@pobox
June 27. a fi ltering technology; rather, This kind of talk makes cyber- .com) is a professor at the Univer-
PICS is a labeling standard activists uneasy. For the most sity of Chicago Law School.

W I RED J ULY 1 997 1iJ6

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•• An x2-capable modem, an x2-compatible local analog phone line and an x2-capable service provider are required for these high speed downloads. See WWN.usr.corrVx2 for details.

©1997 U.S. Robotics. All rights reserved. U.s. Robotics, the USRobotics logo and Sportster are registered trademarks and Courier; x2 and the x2 logo are trademarks of U.s. Robotics. All other product names are used for
identification purposes only and may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Product specifications subject to change without notice. 5.14.97 #2439
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Read War and Peace
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knowing thE lattst jargon.
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E LEe T R 0 5 P HER E

Bordering on Chaos There are stranger places to see the latest in

complexity theory in action, but delivering cement in Mexico
is a pretty good start.

ere's how the cement business worked In an air-conditioned operations room

By Peter Katel
H in Mexico's second-largest city, Gua-
dalajara, only a couple of years ago:
on the top floor of a two-story office, Con-
treras and Oscar Suarez are manning their
A builder telephoned in an order a day stations. The ambience is ops-room generic,
or so ahead, two days in advance for big with five screens - including a 19-incher
jobs. He specified a time, knowing it was with a glowing map of the city - and half
basically theoretical, depending on an end- a dozen phone sets.
less array of variables - weather, traffic, It's half past twelve, and Contreras is
a missing receipt, fielding a request: a load of ready-mix in
the number of other 40 minutes for a new gas station. No hay
orders the plant had problema. A satellite-linked GPS system
to try to fill. Trucks pinpoints three Cemex trucks on the road,
got lost - up to 140 one of them right in range. Still talking,
might be on the road Contreras does a quick check on the cus-
at a time - walkie- tomer's billing status. Then he taps a few
talkies conked out, keys, the instructions go out to the onboard
ill-financed projects computer in a truck near the site, and the
shut down with their concrete is on its way.
foundations half Over on Suarez's side, Alarma flashes
poured. Penalties or onscreen in white letters: a delivery is due
not, on delivery day in 30 minutes, but the customer hasn't
half of the customers called to confirm. Suarez glances at the
canceled or resched- city map, then goes back to some paper-
uled their orders. The work: If the builder calls, there's a truck
bottom line: tons of available. If he doesn't, the plant will
(emex - with satellite costly cement rumbling around town with automatically be notified to cut back the
links, expert systems, nowhere to go, even as builders were lucky rest of the day's production. Any dispute?
and a computer in every to get delivery the right day, let alone the The customer's welcome to come by and
right hour. "You tried to stay on top, but listen to a Teac digital recorder play back
truck - is confounding
something would always get by," recalls Ale- not only his original phone conversations
old ideas about the
jandro Contreras, a veteran dispatcher with with the dispatchers, but - like a cockpit
lines that separate the
the local subsidiary of Cementos Mexicanos voice recorder - everything said in the
world's info haves and - Cemex for short. "When the phone rang, operations room. On the other hand, if
have-nots. it was usually someone who was upset. a truck is more than 20 minutes late, it's
You had to sit there and take it - let the 20 pesos (about US$2.50) off for each
customer blow off steam - then try to nego- cubic meter, about a 20 percent discount.
tiate a solution. Hijole! Oh, man! When To promote the offer, Cemex has even
the phone rang, sometimes I wanted to printed miniature pizza boxes labeled
just not answer it." with a slogan that pokes a little fun at the
Here's how things worked in the same local Domino's franchise: "Now, the con-
city one afternoon this March: crete is faster than the pizza."

W I RED JULY 1997 11]8

E LEe T R~S P HER E

There are probably stranger places to see network for in-house training and video- comfortable old oligopolies to sharp-edged
the latest in complexity theory in action, but conferencing. A local call from virtually foreign competitors. Added to that was hair-
delivering cement in Mexico is a pretty good anywhere on the planet hooks traveling raising economic instability - the kind of
start. Cemex is a company on a high tech executives directly into the companywide roller coaster that, in 1995, sent Cemex's
roll that has carried it in scarcely a decade international phone system. home-market sales plummeting 50 per-
from a sleepy perch in northern Mexico to But what has happened in the Guadala- cent. Fortunately by then, more than 60
its place as the world's third-largest cement jara control room goes past all that. What percent of the company's revenues were
company. Its 20,000-plus people, 486 plants, Cemex is looking for now are ways to adapt coming from abroad, including Europe,
thousands of vehicles, and fleet of freight global technology to the developing world's the Caribbean, and South America. Any
ships move more than 50 million tons of essentially limitless range of local problems. doubts about the wisdom of spreading
the stuff annually in 60 countries - includ- Complexity theory is one answer - systems the risk through globalization fell away.
ing places that make Guadalajara look like that take uncertainty for granted and allow The problem was keeping control, espe-
Geneva. And in doing so, Cemex is con- solutions to evolve, rather than trying to cially in a company used to being run on
founding ideas about the lines that suppos- rigidly engineer them. Ad hoc options in a short leash from its Monterrey headquar-
edly separate the info haves of the world place of schedules. On-the-spot decision- ters. "Lorenzo is one of those people who
from people like Alejandro Contreras and making instead of hierarchies. Those kinds sits up at the top and believes if he screams
Oscar Suarez. of strategies are not unknown in the main- loud enough he'll get results;' says Kenneth
Cemex has its First World operations stream corporate world - companies like Massey, a 55-year-old American who began
- through astute acquisitions, it's now GM and Citicorp use complexity-based sys- his career south of the border two decades
Spain's top cement supplier and has a US tems for everything from streamlining man- ago as head of the University of Monterrey's
subsidiary based in New Braunfels, Texas. ufacturing to keeping financial portfolios Department of Information Sciences, later
But it specializes in places that lack highly abreast of market waves. Cern ex's leap is jumped to private industry, and eventually
developed road systems, solid telephone to apply them to parts of the world where joined Cemex in 1992. "He was getting the
idea that he couldn't shout much louder
and that he couldn't believe everything
In parts of the world where complexity people were telling him."
Massey and Zambrano were well aware
- if not outright chaos - is the defining characteristic, information technology was the only way
to keep control of a company with global
the rewards for creating order can be great. horizons and revenues growing 20-plus
percent a year. To keep growing in a com-
networks, and legions of well-educated complexity - if not outright chaos - is the modity business, where you compete on
workers - where surviving in the construc- defining characteristic. And where the price and service, computers had to be
tion business is like keeping one's head rewards for creating order can be great. deployed as more than industrial-strength
above water in a raging sea. Where equip- calculators. But Zambrano also homed in
ment breaks down, workers can't get to the Amazing quiet on one of Massey's pet ideas: the impor-
site, and exchange-rate fluctuations jack Cemex executives will dutifully tell you that tance of a system that enables employees
up supply costs. Where competing becomes the idea of going high tech came from chair to make - and keep - commitments. "He
a matter of showing customers that you can and CEO Lorenzo Zambrano, a 53-year-old asked me what kind of promise I was ready
save them from uncertainty. Where reliable Stanford MBA whose grandfather consoli- to make. I said, 'I'll return my salary and
information has real scarcity value. dated Cemex as a modern company in the waive any indemnization, and I'll sign that
A lot of that is Information Technology 1920s. Company lore portrays Zambrano in blood.' He said, 'You don't have to sign
101. A data network that uses a combi- as a cyber whiz who goes through his Lotus- anything in blood. Pero yo tengo Zarga
nation of local and international carriers, Notes email while he flies, then jacks in memoria. (But I have a long memory).'''
plus Cemex's own satellite system, hooks his IBM ThinkPad to check on his far-flung Shortly after Massey joined Cemex, he
up every plant and office, providing streams operations wherever he touches down. took a dozen company executives on an eye-
of real-time data on everything from daily In fact, Cemex had basically no choice popping trip to the Memphis headquarters
sales and output to truck oil-change sched- but to go global - and fast. Even before of another company facing delivery prob-
ules. Technical flying squads get newly NAFTA applied the coup de grace three lems: FedEx. There, along with the flashy
acquired subsidiaries online in only a years ago, Mexico's centuries-old protec- logistics, was a deeper message: the value
few months. There's a private satellite TV tionist walls were crumbling, exposing its of delivering perfect service, what came

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E LEe T R~S P HER E

to be known at Cemex as "impeccability." Flores says. "Only a free man can make six to eight months of conversations. We
They also paid a visit to what seemed commitments." And one with a clear pic- realized that we had to reinterpret what we
to be an odder choice: the fire-ambulance ture of what's going on. were doing." Resendez adds, "We started
division of Houston's 911 operation. "We by asking, What is it we want?" Prieto de la
were amazed at how quiet it was;' says The conversation Fuente says, "We were searching for anom-
Homero Resendez Saleh, a slender, baby- For all the money Cemex has spent on alies and examining our conventional wis-
faced computer scientist who heads Cemex's information technology - an estimated dom: 'We have to schedule deliveries one
Center for Business Processes. "We won- 1 percent of its US$3 billion annual rev- day ahead of time.' Why? 'Because that's the
dered, 'How can they be dealing with enue - the first thing its executives want way you do it.'"
emergencies?' The answer was that what to say is that none of this is really about
was an emergency for us was routine for 19-inch monitors or digitized truck sched- Alarm bells
them." Lessons? The system got the nec- ules. Raul Prieto de la Fuente, part of Ask a Mexican to pick a likely city for inno-
essary information from people quickly. the company's internal consulting branch, vation and Guadalajara won't be the first
It pinpointed available resources in real even disses computers as ''fierros.'' Simply choice. Perhaps Mexico City, the country's
time. And it gave operators on the spot translated, it means "hardware;' but the power center, or Monterrey, home to Cemex
- not distant managers - the authority word is more archaic - a term you'd use and a host of other powerful corporations
to respond instantly. for horseshoes or pipes or guns. The point - places embodying capitalist force and state
Massey, who left Cemex amicably last made is that the Guadalajara ops center's might. As for Guadalajara and the surround-
year to go into private consulting, also machines might as well be a pile of rusted- ing state of Jalisco, they are, by Mexican law,
expanded on the idea he had broached out filing cabinets for all the importance the source of all tequila.
with Zambrano: the paramount import- that Cemex's philosopher-engineers attach But there was another reason Guadala-
ance of commitments as a way to cut to them when they are deep into what they jara was the perfect laboratory for Cemex.
through chaos and uncertainty. To back call "the conversation." Business is down 60 percent since the '94
up that concept, he brought in Business In one guise or another, the conversation crash. Some 50,000 new houses sit empty.
Design Associates, an Alameda, California- - an ongoing process of top-to-bottom self- The 140-truck fleet Cemex once had on the
based consulting firm whose ideas were examination - is standard-issue late-20th- road has shrunk to 20. In this climate, every
customer and every order counts. But if
a radical new project goes horribly wrong,
Cemex's infowarriors radiate the sort of intellectual it's not a company killer.
The mission in Guadalajara was to build
energy and engagement that one expects from a system that could surf the complexity by
making each ready-mix truck as indepen-
scientists or university professors or political activists. dent as possible - in effect, an autonomous
agent cruising the city, waiting for orders.
starting to circulate through the business- century consultant-speak. But the idea has Instead of stationing an order taker at each
process subculture. BDA's Chilean-born clearly struck an eager chord with Cemex's plant, Cemex would have just one central
founder, Fernando Flores, has the perfect cadre of information warriors. Indeed, ops room for the whole city. Most impor-
background for offsetting fears of yanqui sitting around a table at one of Guadala- tant, instead of struggling hopelessly to keep
high-handedness: the economics minister jara's power-breakfast haunts, Prieto de la to a fixed schedule, the goal would be to
in Salvador Allende's ill-fated Socialist Fuente and his colleagues radiate the sort keep enough options open to handle any
government at age 30, he spent three of intellectual energy and engagement that likely request. Says Massey: "If I can pre-
years in a military prison, then went into one expects from scientists or university dict where the orders are coming from
exile, ending up pursuing a self-designed professors or political activists. and can maintain random distribution of
PhD in management, linguistics, and "Conversations," Prieto de la Fuente trucks, I should always be able to have one
philosophy at UC Berkeley. The core of tosses out, "are where things are invented." close to where it's needed. If I can have
Flores's message: successful systems are I look at him quizzically. "People convers- a chaotic distribution of vehicles, then I'm
driven by loops of people working to ing about what they do and what they can really trying not to control chaos, but to use
fulfill commitments - say, getting a truck- do better. That's how you find out where it to my advantage."
load ofready-mix concrete to a certain you need to focus your efforts." The foundation for what Cemex calls its
building site at 1:35 p.m. Francisco Perez Madero, operations man- Sincronizacion Dimimica de Operaciones
"No machine can make commitments;' ager in Guadalajara, chimes in: "We had is a set of business-process software and

WIR E D JU L Y 1997 DoD

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E LEe T R~ S P HER E

expert programs painstakingly gleaned by Does it work? That is, does it work every terrey. The city doesn't get extensive treat-
a team of Cemex specialists during nearly day, in the field? Francisco "Paco" Rivera, ment in guidebooks; people visit Monter-
a year of meetings - Suarez counted 40 in a Cemex programmer and troubleshooter rey for business, not Kodak moments. It's
all - in which the Guadalajara crew were visiting the Guadalajara ops room, jacks not popular, either, among Mexico City's
grilled on the realities of their jobs: Thurs- in his IBM ThinkPad and calls up Cemex's chattering class, for whom northern Mex-
days and Fridays are busier because build- South America network. In the first half of ico has always been viewed with suspicion
ers like to let concrete set over a weekend. March, the company's low tech Venezuela as a sort of 51st US state run by corporate
The summertime's afternoon rains mean operation made 771 deliveries, 34.4 per- types who wish that the border were moved
more morning deliveries. ''You throw linear cent on time. By contrast, in Guadalajara south. Such people do exist, but if any lurk
programming out the window;' says Massey. in March of last year - with the system in Cern ex, they don't set the tone.
"The time it takes to go from point A to point barely six months old - 97.63 percent of Gelacio Ifiiguez Jauregui, Cemex's vice
B is a function of experience. What you're 1,365 deliveries were on time, within 10 president of information technology, is as
putting together is a world of judgments, minutes ofthe promised hour. This year, polished as any Mexico City sophisticate -
not a world of facts." with business creeping back toward nor- a product of an old-fashioned private school
Fed with streams of day-to-day data - mal and the number of deliveries doubled, system that believes in turning out well-
customer orders, production, traffic prob- the on-time percentage is even higher - rounded leaders. A gourmet cook and a
lems, roadwork in progress, even changing 98.15 percent. And plans are already being connoisseur of Colorado's ski slopes, he's
weather conditions - the result is what soft- made to expand the Guadalajara experiment spent his entire career designing and run-
ware designers call an adaptive system, one to Monterrey and Mexico City. ning information systems - always for
that actually gets smarter the longer it runs. Not everyone is entirely enthusiastic. Mexican-owned companies. Were Cemex
Operating over a PC-based LAN, its only Hector Javier Arenas Novoa, a grizzled swallowed up by a foreign competitor, he
really unusualfierros are the book-sized driver and local union chief, says that if says, "you're opening up an opportunity
onboard computers and GPS relays that customers are happy, they order more con- for Mexicans to works for maquiladoras"
sit by each driver. The machines, made by crete and everybody benefits, but some of - border-area assembly plants. "That's not
the California-based firm Distributed Net- the younger guys have complained: Why what I want to do." It's something Ross Perot
works, have a screen for ops center mes- does the company have to know where I am might keep in mind: free trade is a lot scar-
ier south of the Rio Grande.
Ifiiguez's idealism may sound odd in a
Forget about paving paradise to put up a parking lot: business that, for First Worlders, conjures
hard-hatted guys paving paradise to put
in Chiapas, in Peru's squatter cities, in the open-sewer up a parking lot. But in Cemex country,
slums of Port-au-Prince, cement is the stuff of dreams. cement and concrete mean roads, hospitals,
sewers, power plants, and water systems.
In Chiapas, in Peru's squatter cities, in the
sages and customized buttons: "Leaving every single minute? But as he waits for open-sewer slums of Port-au-Prince, cement
plant" or "Arrived at site," plus a laconic a new load in his air-conditioned eight- is the stuff of dreams.
"Customer not ready." The data meshes wheeler, Arena Novoa makes it clear that A lot of Cemex's know-how originated
seamlessly with the rest of the system. he isn't about to call any strikes over that. north of the border, but in the transnational
"If a route normally takes 15 minutes, The 16 Cemex trucks typically on the road era now upon us, it's also clear the so-called
and after 15 minutes the driver isn't in Guadalajara are already at least five developed world is losing its once-exclusive
there, we'll get an alarm," says Suarez. fewer than would have been needed before. claim on innovation and efficiency. Cemex's
The result is three integrated systems: And for anyone who asks whether that's phone net shames most global media com-
one for taking orders, another for check- a good idea in a country where 40 percent panies. The self-contained technologies
ing a customer's financial profile, and the of the breadwinners are jobless or barely that have been developed in Guadalajara
last for tracking software the ops room working, the answer is blunt: If we're not will work in places where many First World
dispatchers use. And the whole thing is competitive, some foreign corporation is companies would be scared to make a sales
accessible from any of the 30 PCs spread going to come in and eat our lunch. call. Who better, after all, to confront chaos
throughout the Guadalajara headquarters and inefficiency than those who've grown
- sales, accounting, maintenance - as well Hello, Ross Perot up with it? "Most Europeans and Americans
as through Cemex's global WAN by any Competition is the reality that Cemex's top don't distinguish Chile from Chiapas," Flo-
staffer armed with the right passwords. people deal with from their perch in Mon- res says. "And yet in big companies, even

W IR E D JU L Y 1 997 goD
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 E LEe T R ~S P HER E DONT
in Germany - or Switzerland, where they time American writer on Mexico, calls the CAN THEM!
have a reputation for punctuality and rules
- they hire me, a Latin American. And you
"cult of the licenciado." Literally, the word
means someone with a college degree. In
SCAN
know what? They bring me for impeccabil- practice, it signifies someone who can make THEM!
ity. That's a major transformation." things happen, usually from behind a desk.
As PointCast headlines flutter by on his Traditionally, all information goes to the
office monitor, Iiiiguez talks about how in licenciado and all decisions come from him.
Mexico, fathers and children are more like Or don't, which is where the classic bureau-
partners these days. Only a couple of dec- cratic morass starts.
ades ago, he says, children didn't have real What Cemex is doing - giving employ-
conversations with their fathers . Now, with ees the knowledge that they need and the
kids often a step or two ahead in manipu- authority to use it, to make and keep those
lating technology, parents and children commitments - turns that hoary old tradi-
are on a more equal footing. It would be tion upside down. Cemex people like to use
tempting to sketch out a thesis about the the English word "empowerment." North
decline of patriarchy in Latin America, of the border, this term may have lost some
but I'd had virtually the same conversation of its freshness, but in Mexico it still has
three weeks earlier with my oldest friend, the ring of a call to arms. People such as
a New York-born computer marketing exec- Suarez, Contreras, and Esparza may indeed
utive with no Latin blood. "I'm like a pal someday become licenciados - but they
THE NEW
to my kids," he mused. already have the power to make real deci-
DINiAGE
But change is real, and if companies like sions, which is shocking enough.
SCAN DUAl
Cemex are to stay in the game, they need So the revolution spreads, even to places
SAVES YOUR
to cultivate people other than the well- as unlikely as the cement business in Mex-
OLD PICTURES
rounded private school graduates who run ico. Iiiiguez, hardly a rabble-rouser, has the
FOR NEW LIFE
everything important in Mexico. Everybody fervor of a permanent revolutionary. "IT" -
ON YOUR Pc.
Now clearing out your
North of the border, the word "empowerment" picture files doesn't mean
throwing out. Scan those 35mm
may have lost some of its freshness, but in Mexico or Advanced Photo System*
it still has the ring of a call to arms. shots on the new
Dimage Scan Dual.
After you're finished eyeballing
knows that: In the Guadalajara ops room, he pronounces the letters in English - "that the 8 million pixels resolution,
both Oscar Suarez and Alejandro Contreras locks in business-as-usual is simply using you can e-mail your shots,
- thirtysomethings whose schooling stopped new technology for old principles. Automa- design with them or use them
after high school - are getting university tion is not the essential point; the philoso- any way you want on your PC.
degrees at night on Cemex scholarships. At phy is not to try to control everything. What And all for a price that won't
a ready-mix plant a few miles away works we do is an architecture of human styles trash your budget.
Javier Esparza, a 33-year-old who started of behavior. Of course, tomorrow someone -Advanced Photo System scann ing requ ires optional adapter.

out with Cemex changing oil. His schooling could invent another conversation, one that
ended when he was 15. Now he's an inte-
grated systems manager making sure that
all trucks in Cemex's Pacific region are up-
could take us out of the running. So you
have to learn how to make distinctions
among conversations - and understand
DimiJge
to-date in their maintenance schedule. As
part of the deal, he's back in school too.
how the world is transforming itself."
A load of ready-mix, anyone? __ _
Scan DuaL
From ratcheting off oil pans to tapping
a keyboard is not a bad career path. But Peter Katel ([email protected]
something deeper is at work as well, cen- .com) is a correspondent in Newsweek's
tered on what William A. Orme Jr., a long- Miami bureau.

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 The Shame of Java
By Dave Winer

The technology press seems to know only three stories: Apple is

dead, Microsoft is evil, and Java is the future. And reporters ask only
two follow-up questions: Is Apple still dead? Is Microsoft still evil?
Let's ask the third.
Microsoft is a brick wall. Like so many others in the past, Sun Micro- The two major political parties
systems has decided to throw itself against the wall as hard as it can, - with their reliance on top-
hoping to break through with Java. Here's what the wall looks like. down, legacy media branding
Microsoft has deals with virtually every PC hardware manufacturer. and communications struc-
Microsoft makes money on each computer they sell. This is a multi- tures - are failing to produce
billion-dollar business for Microsoft. It would be very natural for PC useful solutions to tomorrow's
"Systemwide alarm signals go
off quickly when the informa- makers to license their Java Virtual Machine from Microsoft instead problems. Is it any wonder
tional sphere is even mildly of Sun. Microsoft knows how to play this game. Micro-
questioned."
- Herbert I. Schiller
soft owns this game. Cross-Platform Technology
If you're a Java developer or licensee, in other
By Jock Gill
words, you're the stuff between two slices of bread.
The slices are Sun's and Microsoft's virtual machines. that citizen participation is so
But Sun's not telling all about Java. There are secrets. sadly reduced? The Internet,
Shoot a street scene with a What are the terms of the license agreements Sun has on the other hand, has created
Cinematographe and it will struck with Netscape, Apple, Oracle, IBM, et cetera? great excitement about one-to-
take your city back 100 years. They're confidential. one and relationship market-
Shoot it in super-8 and you Let's say you want to license Java. Get out the check- ing and mass customization.
will book and start writing. Add another zero. Add another. Yet using the Net to create a
Technostalgia be Next year, more millions. Add it up. JavaSoft has 400 plebiscite form of government
mag- employees. That's a big burn rate. So what do you get is a bad idea. Just ask busi-
By Roberto Tietzmann ically for those millions? There's a feedback system, the com-
nesses whether they would like
transported to the 1960s. pany says. Sun listens first to licensees, then to the gen- to be run by instant polling of
Indeed,just as the constraints eral world. Pay us money, and we'll implement your their customer base and see
of moving picture technology ideas. I suspect that the more money you pay, the how fast they say no.
define the look of an era, the more they listen. A better approach is fusion,
design of any graphical inter- The shame of Java is that it's being used to serve or cross-nomination, which
face shapes our view of history. Sun's corporate purposes, to keep the stock price up. allows two or more parties to
Which makes Mosaic the Net's Java is owned, not free. And while it made sense for nominate the same candidate
Lumiere camera, our first win- Sun to own Java for a time, that time is gone. on separate ballots. The Pop-
dow to the Web. And no matter Sun CEO Scott McNealy seems to agree:"You don't ulists and other parties used
what is shown, anything seen have to own English to be a writer." Eventually Sun will fusion to great effect in the
with the venerable Mosaic set Java free. But will this be before or after it destroys 19th century. The major parties
1.0.3 will forever be stamped the entrepreneurial energy of the Internet? responded by outlawing the
1994. As time goes by, expect Java was a vote for the geeks. A necessary balance practice almost everywhere.
to see old browsers become to the world of easy-to-use software. Java was also While the Supreme Court
collector's items, a stylish love at first sight. Like the happy start-up icon that recently upheld the right of
means of looking backward greets Mac users, Java loves the world, and the world states to ban cross-nomination
as you ride the infobahn for loves Java. outright, the Internet process
nostalgia's sake. But does Java really have an answer to the security is far more compatible with
Roberto Tietzmonn ([email protected]) problem? No. There's no smartness to the Java sand- approaches like fusion than
is a multimedia developer and researcher box, no way to move stuff over the firewall. Java is with the current system. Fusion
living in southern Brazil.
a world unto itself, which means users will store stuff can break the stranglehold of
there they don't want to lose, and that stuff can fall strict party lines.
victim to viruses, just like ActiveX or FTP downloads. Jock Gill ijgill@penfield·gill.com) is a can·
And is there any value in Java's cross-platform promise? Mac users sultont specializing in new media.
don't want software that doesn't look and behave like Mac software.
Same goes for users of Windows, and, I suspect, Solaris. Java has to

DOli] W I RED JULY 1 997

 ; !J ;1 or _ ::;

find a niche where people don't already use software. In the main-
stream market there's no time to catch up.
All of which raises the real questions the tech press ignores: When
will Silicon Valley get the message that great software is created by
people, not companies? When will Silicon Valley's finan-
ciers set up corporate systems that serve the products, Perhaps only the rich can
instead of vice versa? And when will creative engineers afford to be truly frugal. The
stop selling their babies to the miserable, petty agendas wealthy have always needed
of small-thinking corporate credit-takers? something to separate them-
The future is not Java - it's still the Web. It's the plat- selves from the masses. When
form without the platform vendor. It's yours and mine resources were scarce, the
as much as Sun's.
Yes, you can build new things with Conspicuous Conservation
Java, but you can do that with other
By Talin
languages and in more complete envi-
ronments. In other words, if you have an idea, there's no well-to-do would deliberately
need to wait for Java to catch up with you. waste them, just to show they
Dove Winer ([email protected]) writes Web essays and editorial software. This could. But in this age of plenty,
piece contains excerpts from a series of essays he wrote about Java in April most of us in the industrial-
(www.scripting.com/specials/wiredJuly.html).
ized world live as no medie-
val kings could ever have
dreamed.
Hyperefficiency, however, is
still a scarcity. And, ironically,
even those who live simply by
The Power to Consume necessity have lost their edge
when it comes to economizing.
By James Ogilvy
Well-designed and expensive
A massive paradox plagues contemporary economics. state-of-the-art machinery, -
On the one hand, we insist that macroeconomic growth from thermodynamically effi-
demands increases in productivity. On the other hand, at cient washer/dryers and fuel-
the microeconomic level firms try to raise productivity by saving hybrid electric cars to
reengineering to reduce employment, which then affects resource-conscious smart
the macroeconomy by reducing unemployed workers' homes, can easily outscrimp
"As has been said i[1 various ability to consume what has been produced. less advanced tools. Thus the
ways, men are noisy, narrow-
band devices, but the ir nerv-
In the past, increases in productivity did not lead to over- concept of conspicuous con-
ous systems have very many capacity because foreign markets could be found for excess servation - being frugal in
parallel and simultaneously goods. National economies were open systems that could high style.
active channels."
export. But the global economy is a closed system for which Tolin ([email protected]) is a researcher and
- J. C. R. Licklider
increases in production must ultimately be balanced by toolsmith at PostLinear Entertainment.
increases in consumption. In other words, increases in pro-
ductivity (production per worker per hour) must be matched by
increases in consumptivity (consumption per consumer per hour).
Consider three components of consumptivity: first, the ability to
consume; second, the will to consume; third, the knowledge of how
to consume cleanly, wisely, and without waste.
The ability to consume is a function of the ability to acquire - that
is, purchasing power - and the ability to use. What is the difference "The problems that will plague
millennial man require that we
between raw consumption and consumptivity? We all know how to
restore the idea of evil, the idea
add; we don't all know how to use a computer. We all know how to of the sacred, to the center of
use a phone; we don't all know how to use the advanced functional- political life ."
- Jacques Attali
ity available over a T1 line. So the ability to consume demands not
only the cash one gets from a good job, but also the knowledge to
take advantage of what one buys.
Consider, for example, the difference between the wino and the

WIRED JULY 1997 D1(i]

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 wine connoisseur. The wino may drink more wine, but the connoisseur
does more for the economy through the ripple effect, employing more
people, including vintners, wine stewards, and food journalists. While
the wino's absolute consumption may be higher, the connoisseur's con-
sumptivity is higher.
If we want the economy (rather than the state) to do the job of rais-
ing purchasing power, then we need to find a way to accelerate the
velocity of exchange by raising consumptivity. Yet raising
consumptivity requires not only purchasing power, but Despite the success of multi-
also the will to consume - namely, desire. player mayhemfests like Duke
In addressing this second component of consumptivity, Nukem, game developers need
we have to acknowledge that plenty of people simply to ask themselves how long
don't want much. Even if they have the purchasing power, they can milk motivation from
you can't get them to buy more consumer goods, or expe- the same old mutant-zombies-
riences, or services. Yet this non-
consumption reduces the velo- You Own Your Own (S)Words
city of money and restrains the
ByG.Beato
wealth-enhancing capacity of
the economy. Forget about the argument that such behav- attack formula. Well before
ior helps the economy by increasing savings rates and "fast, free, guiltless killing"
investment in productive capacity. What good does it do was a warm twitch in some
to produce more goods that don't get consumed? Such SegaSoft marketing exec's
productivity merely builds inventory and induces over- loins, the wrath, vengeance,
capacity, leading to subsequent plant shutdowns, fallow fury, rage, and madness pro-
"Frightened by the accelerat- fields, unemployment, wage reduction, and a decline in mised by the HEAT gaming
ing speed of technologic al the power to consume. network already had bubbled
change, d istressed by the loss
of disposable income, worried Beyond the ability and the will to consume, there is the over in other digital realms.
about a future without jobs, knowledge of how to do so cleanly and wisely. The classic The Well, for example. So why
and angry at the government, environmentalist protest to consumer-driven economic not combine the two in a bul-
the electronic self oscillates
between fear and rage." growth takes the form of this question: What if every fam- letin board (sorry, conferenc-
- Arthur and Marilouise Kroker ily in China buys a car? The earth lacks the carrying capac- ing) system where you can
ity to allow overpopulated, underdeveloped countries to rationally discuss both eso-
grow along the path laid down by consumers in developed terica and important issues
economies. Such growth is ecologically unsustainable. of the day - and, when you
A new understanding of consumption, however, needs just can't take it any more,
to be situated in the context of the transition from indus- blow opponents like the
trial economy to information economy. This third condi- Always Right Leftist and the
tion, the requirement for benign consumption, helps save Flippant Fop into tiny shreds
consumptivity from attacks against base consumerism. of deintellectualized meat.
It is a call for the sublimation of desire from materialism This would certainly make
to etherealism - fewer durables, more intangibles: experi- a more innovative - and com-
ences, entertainment, knowledge, wisdom. Fortunately, pelling - kind of language
this higher order of consumption does not obey the law game.
of constant conservation of mass and energy. The sublime G. Beata (www.soundbitten.coml) is a
is not a zero-sum game. Consequently, increasing consump- Son Francisco-based freelance writer.

tivity can accelerate the velocity of money, create jobs,

and enhance purchasing power.
Enhancing consumptivity in the economics of the sublime means
educating our passions, refining our tastes, raising our appreciation
for the finer things in life. Think of laughter as the consumption of
"The fault lines between
a joke, and a better sense of humor as a higher level of consumptivity.
civilizations will be the
Likewise, think of ~etter health as higher consumptivity in the health battle lines of the future."
care industry. Now translate that model to the rest of your desires. - Samuel Huntington

James Ogi/vy ([email protected]),cafounderandvicepresidentof Global Business Network, is the

author of Living Without a Goal: Finding the Freedom to Live a Creative and Innovative Life.

WIRED JULY 1997 D1fJ

 BACK ISSUES

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The Way It Should Be.
THE LONG

A HISTORY OF
THE FUTURE
1980-2020

BY PETER
SCHWARTZ
AND PETER
LEYDEN

WE'RE FACING 25
YEARS OF PROSPERITY,
FREEDOM, AND A
BETTER ENVIRONMENT
FOR THE WHOLE WORLD.
YOU GOT APROBLEM
WITH THAT?
W I RED JULY 1997
 ABAD
MEME- a contagion, idea - began 'pread-
ing through the United States in the 1980s: .America is in
economies and the integration of markets, will drive the
growth through much of the rest of the world. An unpre-
decline, the world is going to hell, and our children's lives cedented alignment of an ascendent Asia, a revitalized
will be worse than our own. The particulars are now America, and a reintegrated greater Europe - including
familiar: Good jobs are disappearing, working people a recovered Russia - together will create an economic
are falling into poverty, the underclass is swelling, crime juggernaut that pulls along most other regions of the
is out of control. The post-Cold War world is fragment- planet. These two metatrends - fundamental technologi-
ing, and conflicts are erupting all over the planet. The cal change and a new ethos of openness - will transform
environment is imploding - with global warming and our world into the beginnings of a global civilization, a
ozone depletion, we'll all either die of cancer or live in new civilization of civilizations, that will blossom through
Waterworld. As for our kids, the collapsing educational the coming century.
system is producing either gun-toting gangsters or burg- Think back to the era following World War II, the
er-flipping dopes who can't read. 40-year span from 1940 to 1980 that immediately pre-
By the late 1990s, another meme began to gain ground. cedes our own. First, the US economy was flooded with
Borne of the surging stock market and an economy that an array of new technologies that had been stopped
won't die down, this one is more positive: America is up by the war effort: mainframe computers, atomic
finally getting its economic act together, the world is not energy, rockets, commercial aircraft, automobiles, and
such a dangerous place after all, and our kids just might television. Second, a new integrated market was devised
lead tolerable lives. Yet the good times will come only to for half the world - the so-called free world - in part
a privileged few, no more than a fortunate fifth of our through the creation of institutions like the World Bank
BUT THERE'S society. The vast majority in the United States and the and the International Monetary Fund. With the tech-
world face a dire future of increasingly desperate poverty. nology and the enhanced system of international trade
ANEW, VERY And the environment? It's a lost cause. in place by the end of the 1940s, the US economy roared
DIFFERENT through the 1950s, and the world economy joined in

MEME, ARADICALLY through the 1960s, only to flame out in the 1970s with
high inflation - partly a sign of growth that came too
fast. From 1950 to 1973, the world economy grew at an
OPTIMISTIC
MEME·
We are watching the beginnings of average 4.9 percent - a rate not matched since, well,
a global economic boom on a scale right about now. On the backs of that roaring economy
• never experienced before. We have and increasing prosperity came social, cultural, and
entered a period of sustained growth that could eventu- political repercussions. It's no coincidence that the 1960s
ally double the world's economy every dozen years and were called revolutionary. With spreading affluence
bring increasing prosperity for - quite literally - billions came great pressure from disenfranchised races and
of people on the planet. We are riding the early waves other interest groups for social reform, even overt polit-
of a 25-year run of a greatly expanding economy that ical revolution.
will do much to solve seemingly intractable problems like Strikingly similar - if not still more powerful - forces
poverty and to ease tensions throughout the world. And are in motion today. The end of the military state of
we'll do it without blowing the lid off the environment. readiness in the 1980s, as in the 1940s, unleashed an
If this holds true, historians will look back on our era array of new technologies, not the least of which is the
as an extraordinary moment. They will chronicle the Internet. The end of the Cold War also saw the triumph
40-year period from 1980 to 2020 as the key years of a of a set of ideas long championed by the United States:
remarkable transformation. In the developed countries those of the free-market economy and, to some extent,
of the West, new technology will lead to big productivity liberal democracy. This cleared the way for the creation
increases that will cause high economic growth - actually, of a truly global economy, one integrated market. Not
waves of technology will continue to roll out through half the world, the free world. Not one large colonial
the early part of the 21st century. And then the relent- empire. Everybody on the planet in the same economy.
less process of globalization, the opening up of national This is historically unprecedented, with unprecedented
consequences to follow. In the 1990s, the United States
Peter Schwartz ([email protected]) is cofounder and is experiencing a booming economy much like it did in
chair of Global Business Network and author of The Art the 1950s. But look ahead to the next decade, our parallel
of the Long View. Peter Leyden ([email protected]) is to the 1960s. We may be entering a relentless economic
a features editor at Wired. expansion, a truly global economic boom, the long boom.

WIRED JULY 1 997 01(1)

 Sitting here in the late 1990s, it's possible to see how plexity of the most advanced integrated circuits being
all the pieces could fall into place. It's possible to con- designed in the late 1990s. By 2015, reliable simultaneous
struct a scenario that could bring us to a truly better language translation has been cracked - with immediate
world by 2020. It's not a prediction, but a scenario, one consequences for the multilingual world.
that's both positive and plausible. Why plausible? The The trajectory for the telecommunications wave follows
basic science is now in place for five great waves of tech- much the same arc. The breakup of Ma Bell, initiated
nology - personal computers, telecommunications, bio- in 1982, triggers a frenzy of entrepreneurial activity as
technology, nanotechnology, and alternative energy - that nascent companies like MCI and Sprint race to build
could rapidly grow the economy without destroying the fiber-optic networks across the country. By the early 1990s,
environment. This scenario doesn't rely on a scientific these companies shift from moving voice to moving data
breakthrough, such as cold fusion, to feed our energy as a new phenomenon seems to come out of nowhere:
needs. Also, enough unassailable trends - call them pre- the Internet. Computers and communications become
determined factors - are in motion to plausibly predict inextricably linked, each feeding the phenomenal growth
their outcome. The rise of Asia, for example, simply can't of the other. By the late 1990s, telecom goes wireless.
be stopped. This is not to say that there aren't some huge Mobile phone systems and all-purpose personal commu-
unknowns, the critical uncertainties, such as how the nications services arrive first with vast antennae net-
United States handles its key role as world leader. works on the ground. Soon after, the big satellite projects
Why a positive scenario? During the global standoff come online. By 1998, the Iridium global phone network
of the Cold War, people clung to the original ideological is complete. By 2002, Teledesic's global Internet network
visions of a pure form of communism or capitalism. A is operational. These projects, among others, allow seam-
positive scenario too often amounted to little more than less connection to the information infrastructure anywhere
surviving nuclear war. Today, without the old visions, on the planet by early in the century. By about 2005,
it's easy enough to see how the world might unravel into high-bandwidth connections that can easily move video
chaos. It's much more difficult to see how it could all have become common in developed countries, and video-
weave together into something better. But without an phones finally catch on.
expansive vision of the future, people tend to get short- The symbiotic relationship between these technology
sighted and mean-spirited, looking out only for them- sectors leads to a major economic discontinuity right
selves. A positive scenario can inspire us through what around 1995, generally attributed to the explosive growth
will inevitably be traumatic times ahead. of the Internet. It's the long boom's Big Bang - immedi-
So suspend your disbelief. Open up to the possibilities. ately fueling economic growth in the traditional sense of
Try to think like one of those future historians, marveling direct job creation but also stimulating growth in less
at the changes that took place in the 40-year period that direct ways. On the most obvious level, hardware and
straddled the new millennium. Sit back and read through infrastructure companies experience exponential growth,
the future history of the world. as building the new information network becomes one of
the great global business opportunities around the turn
THE BOOM'S of the century.

BIG From a historical vantage point, two develop-

A new media industry also explodes onto the scene to
take advantage of the network's unique capabilities, such
as interactivity and individual customization. Start-ups

BANG ments start around 1980 that will have pro-

found consequences for the US economy, the
Western economy, then the global economy at large. One
plunge into the field, and traditional media companies
lumber in this direction. By the late 1990s, the titans of
the media industry are in a high-stakes struggle over
is the introduction of personal computers. The other is control of the evolving medium. Relative newcomers like
the breakup of the Bell System. These events trigger two Disney and Microsoft ace out the old-guard television
of the five great waves of technological change that will networks in a monumental struggle over digital TV. After
eventually help fuel the long boom. a few fits and starts, the Net becomes the main medium
The full impact can be seen in the sweep of decades. of the 21st century.
In the first 10 years, personal computers are steadily The development of online commerce quickly follows
adopted by businesses. By 1990, they begin to enter the on new media's heels. First come the entrepreneurs who
home, and the microprocessor is being embedded in figure out how to encrypt messages, conduct safe fin an -
many other tools and products, such as cars. By the turn cial transactions in cyberspace, and advertise one to one.
of the century, with the power of computer chips still Electronic cash, a key milestone, gains acceptance around
roughly doubling every 18 months, everything comes 1998. Then come businesses selling everyday consumer
with a small, cheap silicon brain. Tasks like handwriting goods. First it's high tech products such as software, then
recognition become a breeze. Around 2010, Intel builds true information products like securities. Soon every-
a chip with a billion transistors - 100 times the com- thing begins to be sold in cyberspace. By 2000, online

WIRED JU L Y 1997 Dim

 21 ST ·CENTURY
THE LOGIC OF THE
CIVILIZATION O'F
CIVILIZATIONS LONG
BOOM
Two major forces - fundamental
THE technological change and a new ethos
of openness - are driving through our
LONG era, forces that could bring about the
long boom, a 25-year global expansion

BOOM with all its consequences.

Five waves of technology - computers,
telecommunications, biotechnology,
nanotechnology, and alternative energy
- may bring about big productivity
increases that lead to high rates of eco-
nomic growth, in balance with nature.
Meanwhile, we're seeing unprecedented
global integration. For the first time
ever, all regions of the world are inter-
locking their economies and becoming
increasingly interdependent.
Soon we may see a fortuitous alignment:
Asia continues its amazing economic
SUSTAINED THE WHOLE boom. America accelerates its tech-led
economy. Europe reintegrates and recov-
ECONOMIC WORLD FOLLOWS ers from its chronic economic slump.
Russia breaks through in its transition
GROWTH to capitalism. And the rest of the world
IN BALANCE eventually follows the lead of the major
powers.
These two metadevelopments lead to
increasing integration and prosperity
worldwide, which lays the groundwork
for a more open global society and a
civilization of civilizations in the 21 st
century. At least, that's the gist of the
long boom argument.

WIRED J ULY 1 997

 sales hit US$10 billion, still small by overall retail stan- tion-age standard of measuring economic growth. Unsur-
dards. Around 2005, 20 percent of Americans teleshop prisingly, actual growth rates are higher than what had
for groceries. registered on the industrial-age meter. The US economy
Alongside the migration of the traditional retail world is growing at sustained rates of around 4 percent - rates
into cyberspace, completely new types of work are created. not seen since the 1960s.
Many had speculated that computer networks would The turn of the century marks another major shift in
lead to disintermediation - the growing irrelevance of government policy, as the hidebound analysis of inflation
the middleman in commerce. Certainly the old-style go- is finally abandoned in light of the behavior of the new
betweens are sideswiped, but new types of intermediaries economy. While the Vietnam War, oil shocks, and rela-
arise to connect buyers to sellers. And with the friction tively closed national labor markets had caused genuine
taken out of the distribution system, the savings can be inflationary pressures that wreaked havoc on the economy
channeled into new ventures, which create new work. through the 1970s, the tight monetary policies of the 1980s
soon harness the inflation rate and lead to a solid decade
THE BIRTH with essentially no wage or price rises. By the 1990s,
OF THE NET- globalization and international competition add to the
W 0 R KED New technologies have an impact much bigger downward pressure. By 2000, policymakers finally come
ECON 0 MY than what literally takes place online. On a more around to the idea that you can grow the economy at
fundamental level, the networked economy is born. Start- much higher rates and still avoid the spiral of inflation.
ing with the recession of 1990-91, American businesses The millennium also marks a symbolic changing of the
begin going through a wrenching process of reengineer- guard at the Federal Reserve Bank: Alan Greenspan
ing, variously described at the time as downsizing, out- retires, the Fed lifts its foot off the brake, and the US
sourcing, and creating the virtual corporation. In fact, economy really begins to take off.
they are actually taking advantage of new information
technologies to create the smaller, more versatile eco-
nomic units of the coming era. MORE
Businesses, as well as most organizations outside the TECH
business world, begin to shift from hierarchical processes WAVES Right about the turn of the century, the third
to networked ones. People working in all kinds of fields - of the five waves of technology kicks in. After a couple
the professions, education, government, the arts - begin false starts in the 1980s and 1990s, biotechnology begins
pushing the applications of networked computers. Nearly to transform the medical field. One benchmark comes in
every facet of human activity is transformed in some way 2001 with the completion of the Human Genome Project,
by the emergent fabric of interconnection. This reorgani- the effort to map out all human genes. That understand-
zation leads to dramatic improvements in efficiency and ing of our genetic makeup triggers a series of break-
productivity. throughs in stopping genetic disease. Around 2012, a
Productivity, as it happens, becomes one of the great gene therapy for cancer is perfected. Five years later,
quandaries stumping economists throughout the 1990s. almost one-third of the 4,000 known genetic diseases can
Despite billions invested in new technologies, traditional be avoided through genetic manipulation.
government economic statistics reflect little impact on Throughout the early part of the century, the combi-
productivity or growth. This is not an academic point - it nation of a deeper understanding of genetics, human
drives to the heart of the new economy. Businesses invest biology, and organic chemistry leads to a vast array of
in new technology to boost the productivity of their work- powerful medications and therapies. The health care
ers. That increased productivity is what adds value to the system, having faced a crossroads in 1994 with President
economy - it is the key to sustained economic growth. Clinton's proposed national plan, continues restructuring
Research by a few economists, like Stanford Univer- along the more decentralized, privatized model of HMOs.
sity's Paul Romer, suggests that fundamentally new The industry is already booming when biotech advances
technologies generally don't become productive until begin clicking in the first decade of the century. It receives
a generation after their introduction, the time it takes a further stimulus when the baby boomers begin retiring
for people to really learn how to use them in new ways. en masse in 2011. The industry becomes a big jobs provider
Sure enough, about a generation after the introduction for years to come.
of personal computers in the workplace, work processes The biotech revolution profoundly affects another eco-
begin mutating enough to take full advantage of the tool. nomic sector - agriculture. The same deeper understand-
Soon after, economists figure out how to accurately ing of genetics leads to much more precise breeding of
measure the true gains in productivity - and take into plants. By about 2007, most US produce is being geneti-
account the nebulous concept of improvement in quality cally engineered by these new direct techniques. The same
rather than just quantity. process takes place with livestock. In 1997, the cloning of
By 2000, the US government adopts a new informa- sheep in the United Kingdom startles the world and kicks

WIRED JULY 1997

 MORE CLOSED SOCIETY
MORE FRAGMENTED WORLD

GROWING
INTOLERANCE
• •
MORE RIGIDITY
OF THOUGHT

STAGNATES ECONOMY t....--~

INCREASES POVERTY

MORE OPEN SOCIETY

MORE INTEGRATED WORLD

GROWING ••
TOLERANCE MORE
INNOVATION

SPREADS AFFLUENCE
DECREASES POVERTY
 ay we are in the midst of a 40-year boom_ Looking back, we can identify

FOR THE LONG BOOM S millennia I transition, a period that

began right around 1980_ Say we are on
the front lip of a worldwide economic
early signs of the forces that have gath-
ered strength over the last 1S years
and are now driving through our lives.

UN World Conference on Women in Beijing

•
Anita Hill testifies Republicans take both houses of Congress
•
Proliferation of small, innovative private schools States experiment with decriminalizing
•
Tiananmen massacre renews human rights concerns Bil l Cl inton becomes president California Medical Marijuana Initiative
•
Los Angeles riots We lfare reform initiative

Five-year bull market begins The new economy arises

Savings shift to stock mutual funds

Major military downsizing begins

I
The great economic discontinuity of the Internet

US enters recession Corporate reengineering craze: downsizing and outsourcing Ecash arrives

US economy starts to restructure

North American Free Trade Agreement

World Trade Organization formed out of GATT

Germany begins reunification Global Telecommunications Accord

Breakup of Soviet Union Global Information Technology Ag

Pinnacle of Japan's economic success Japan slides into economic slump

Hong Kong reverts to China

Nanotech design principles develope

Second mini biotech boom

The Internet takes off World Wide Web explosion

I

PCs permeate business world

in 35 percent of US
THE FUTURE HISTORY OF THE WORLD: ATIME LINI

California's Proposition 13 caps property taxes, starts nationwide tax revolt Public schools rapidly deteriorate

Explosion in Latin American and Asian immigration to US

Ronald Reagan becomes president, begins to dismantle welfare state

ifight monetary policy re igns in inflation Rise of computer-driven stock trading

Stock market cras

THE WORLD FOLLOWS

Latin American debt crisis Uruguay round of the General Agreen

EUROPE RESTRUCTURES AND RETOOLS

Mikhail Gorbachev becomes a Politburo member Gorbachev becomes general secretary

Margaret ifhatcher becomes prime minister, challenges the welfare state'

ASIA ASCENDANT

Deng Xiaoping begins China's shift to a market economy

NANOTECHNOLOGY

BIOTECHNOLOGY

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

AT&T breakup decree Rise of MCI, Sprint

COMPUTERS
IBM PC Introduced

Macintosh introduced
 off a flurry of activity in this field. By the turn of basically everything we made, we cooked, and such
the century, prize livestock is being genetically high-temperature cooking creates a lot of waste by-
tweaked as often as traditionally bred. By about products. The logic of the era also tended toward
2005, animals are used for developing organs that larger and larger factories, which created pollution
can be donated to humans. Superproductive ani- at even greater scales.
mals and ultrahardy, high-yielding plants bring Biotech, on the other hand, uses more moderate
another veritable green revolution to countries sus- temperature realms and emulates the processes of
taining large populations. nature, creating much less pollution. Infotech, which
By the end of the transitional era, around 2020, moves information electronically rather than physi-
real advances begin to be made in the field of bio- cally, also makes much less impact on the natural
logical computation, where billions of relatively world. Moving information across the United States
slow computations, done at the level of DNA, can through the relatively simple infotechnology of the
be run simultaneously and brought together in the fax, for example, proves to be seven times more
aggregate to create the ultimate in parallel process- energy efficient than sending it through Federal
ing. So-called DNA computing looks as though it Express. Furthermore, these technologies are on an
will bring about big advances in the speed of pro- escalating track of constant refinement, with each
cessing sometime after 2025 - certainly by the mid- new generation becoming more and more energy
dle of the century. efficient, with lower and lower environmental
Then comes the fourth technology wave - nano- impact. Even so, these increasing efficiencies are
technology. Once the realm of science fiction, this not enough to counteract the juggernaut of a boom-
microscopic method of construction becomes a real- ing global economy.
ity in 2015. Scientists and engineers figure out reli- Fortunately, the fifth wave of new technology -
able methods to construct objects one atom at a time. alternative energy - arrives right around the turn of
Among the first commercially viable products are the century with the introduction of the hybrid elec-
tiny sensors that can enter a person's bloodstream tric car. Stage one begins in the late 1990s when
and bring back information about its composition. automobile companies such as Toyota roll out vehi-
By 2018, these micromachines are able to do basic cles using small diesel- or gasoline-fueled internal-
cell repair. However, nanotechnology promises to combustion engines to power an onboard generator
have a much more profound impact on traditional that then drives small electric motors at each wheel.
manufacturing as the century rolls on. Theoretically, The car runs on electric power at low RPMs but
most products could be produced much more effi- uses the internal-combustion engine at highway
ciently through nanotech techniques. By 2025, the speeds, avoiding the problem of completely battery-
theory is still far from proven, but small desktop powered electric vehicles that run out of juice after
factories for producing simple products arrive. 60 miles. The early hybrids are also much more
By about 2015, nanotech techniques begin to be efficient than regular gas-powered cars, often get-
applied to the development of computing at the ting 80 miles to a gallon.
atomic level. Quantum computing, rather than Stage two quickly follows, this time spurred by
DNA computing, proves to be the heir to micro- aerospace companies such as Allied Signal, which
processors in the short run. In working up to the leverage their knowledge of jet engines to build
billion-transistor microprocessor in 2010, engi- hybrids powered by gas turbines. By 2005, technology
neers seem to hit insurmountable technical barriers: previously confined to aircraft's onboard electric
the scale of integrated circuits has shrunk so small systems successfully migrates to automobiles. These
that optical-lithography techniques fail to function. cars use natural gas to power the onboard genera-
Fortunately, just as the pace of microprocessing tors, which then drive the electric motors at the
power begins to wane, quantum computing clicks wheels. They also make use of superstrong, ultra-
in. Frequent increases in computing power once light new materials that take the place of steel and
again promise to continue unabated for the fore- allow big savings on mileage.
seeable future. Then comes the third and final stage: hybrids

THE using hydrogen fuel cells. The simplest and most

abundant atom in the universe, hydrogen becomes

EARTH All four waves of technology coursing through

the source of power for electric generators - with
the only waste product being water. No exhaust. No

SAVER this era - computers, telecom, biotech, and

nanotech - contribute to a surge of economic
activity. In the industrial era, a booming economy
carbon monoxide. Just water. The basic hydrogen-
power technology had been developed as far back as
the Apollo space program, though then it was still
would have put a severe strain on the environment: extremely expensive and had a nasty tendency to

W I RED J ULY 1 997

 blow up. By the late 1990s, research labs such as also begins right around 1980. One of the souls
British Columbia-based Ballard Power Systems are who best articulates this idea of the open society
steadily developing the technology with little public is Mikhail Gorbachev. It's Gorbachev who helps
fanfare. Within 10 years, there are transitional bring about some of its most dramatic manifesta-
hydrogen car models that extract fuel from ordinary tions : the fall of the Wall, the collapse of the Soviet
gasoline, using the existing network of pumps. By empire, the end of the Cold War. He helps inititate
2010, hydrogen is being processed in refinery-like a vast wave of political change that includes the
plants and loaded onto cars that can go thousands of democratization of eastern Europe and Russia itself.
miles - and many months - before refueling. The To kick it off, Gorbachev introduces two key con-
technology is vastly cheaper and safer than in the cepts to his pals in the Politburo in 1985, two ideas
THE FUTURE
1960s and well on its way to widespread use. that will resonate not just in the Soviet Union but
HISTORY OF
These technological developments drive nothing through all the world. One is glasnost. The other is
THE WORLD
less than a wholesale transformation of the automo- perestroika. Openness and restructuring - the for-
ATIME LINE bile industry through the first quarter of the new mula for the age, the key ingredients of the long
FOR THE century. Initially prodded by government decrees boom.
LONG such as California's zero-emission mandate - which
called for 10 percent of new cars sold to have zero
An equally important character is China's Deng
Xiaoping. His actions don't bring about the same
BOOM emissions by 2003 - the industrial behemoths begin dramatic political change, but right around the
to pick up speed when an actual mar- same time as Gorbachev, Deng initiates a similarly
Say we are in the midst of a ket for hybrid cars opens up. People profound shift of policies, applying the concepts of
40-year millennia I transition, buy them not because they are the openness and restructuring to the economy. This
a period that began right around environmentally correct option but process of opening up - creating free trade and free
1980. Say we are on the front lip because they're sporty, fast, and fun. markets - ultimately makes just as large a global
of a worldwide economic boom. And the auto companies build them impact. No place is this more apparent than in Asia.
Looking back, we can identify because executives see green - as in Japan grasps the gist of this economic formula
early signs of the forces that money, not trees. long before the buzz begins, pulling a group of Asian
have gathered strength over the This 10- to 15-year industrial retool- early adopter countries in its wake. By the 1980s,
last lS years and are now driving ing sends reverberations throughout Japan has nearly perfected the industrial-age manu-
through our lives. By following the global economy. The petrochemi- facturing economy. But by 1990, the rules of the
that forward motion, we can cal giants begin switching from main- global economy have changed to favor more nimble,
rough out possible developments taining vast networks that bring oil innovative processes, rather than meticulous, method-
in the next couple decades. from remote Middle Eastern deserts ical economies of scale. Many of the attributes that
to building similarly vast networks favored Japan in the previous era, such as a com-
These are not outright predic- that supply the new elements of elec- mitment to lifelong employment and protected
tions, but informed projections. trical power. Fossil fuels will contin- domestic markets, work against the country this
They help give shape to a posi- ue to be a primary source of power time around. Japan enters the long slump of the
tive scenario of the future, the into the middle of the 21st century - 1990s. By the end of the decade, Japan has watched
long boom. but they will be clean fossil fuels. the United States crack the formula for success in
By 2020, almost all new cars are hybrid vehicles, the networked economy and begins to adopt the
mostly using hydrogen power. That development model in earnest. In 2000, it radically liberalizes
alone defuses much of the pressure on the global many of its previously protected domestic markets -
environment. The world may be able to support a big stimulus for the world economy at large.
quite a few additional automobile drivers - includ- Japan's rise, however, is but a prelude to the
ing nearly 2 billion Chinese. ascendance of China. In 1978, Deng takes the first
steps toward liberalizing the communist economy.

ASIA
ASCENDANT While the end of the Cold War initiates
China slowly gathers force through the 1980s, until
the annual growth in the gross national product
consistently tops 10 percent. By the 1990s, the econ-
the waves of technology rippling through our omy is growing at a torrid pace, with the entire
40-year era, that's only half the story. The other coast of China convulsed with business activity and
half has to do with an equally powerful force: glob- boomtowns sprouting all over the place. Nineteen
alization. While it is spurred by new technologies, ninety-seven - a year marked by both the death of
the emergence of an interconnected planet is pro- Deng and the long-awaited return of Hong Kong -
pelled more by the power of an idea - the idea of symbolizes the end of China's ideological transition
an open society. and the birth of a real economic world power.
From a historical vantage point, globalization The first decade of the new century poses many
WIRED JULY 1997
 along the time line. For example, a repercussions - look up again - the long haul. The civilization track
breakthrough in technology will- almost certainly will follow. Finally, is best viewed in the context of the
look up - affect the economy. As the there are civilization-level changes, entire 21 st century. What you see
economy shifts, social and political the mega changes that develop over here is just the start.
Humans land on Mars

World economy roughly in balance with nature Millennial generation comes of age

aggression treaty binds US, China, Europe, and Russia A t ruly global culture emerges The beginning of a global civilization of civil izat ions

First Global Environmental Restoration Convention World population stabilizes at 11 bill ion

ns

Americans deep into making the multicultural society work

Immigrants drive revival of the family

economy In place Auto industries transition to alternative energies

lomers begin to retire, fueling new round of health care growth

~Great Central African Crisis: 5 m illion d ie~ J~orld sust aining 6 percent grow
.. .. .. .. . . .. ...... .. ...... . . . . . . .. .... .. ..
Iitalian nation-state becomes first in Europe to

. ... .. .. . . . . . . .. . .... .. . . ... ...... . . . .. ..

!rted ~e economy becomes world's
12 billion Asians have made transition into mid

IQuantum computing takes off

. ........ . .. . ... . ....... ... ..... . .. .. . ..

1First commercially avai lable nanotech productsl
.... .
IDesktop factories on the horizon
\Revival of green nuclear powe~

~rid cars fueled by pure hydrogen I IHi9hly diverse clean energy sourcesl
... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • ..

~Gene therapy for cancer perfectedl lone-third of 4,000 genetic diseases controlledJ IFirst desi

~Human life expectancy reaches 120 yearsl IDNA computing on the

connections anywhere on the planetl

illion-transistor 1O-GHz microprocessorl

IReliable simultaneous language translationl

I I I

I
 By following that forward motion, we jections. They give shape to a positive most fundamental has to do with the progression in these two tracks drives
can rough out possible developments in scenario of the future, the long boom. waves of technology rolling through the many of the changes in the economy.
the next couple decades. These are not The layered tracks in the chart below era . Almost equally important is the That's why the chart should be read from
outright predictions, but informed pro- show how key forces interrelate. The relentless process of globalization. The the bottom up as much as left to right

Mars project initiated by world community Superpower nor

US tax coffers swell off booming economy First e-voting from home in presidential electic

Project Gutenberg complete, 10,000 books online Social Security and Medicare radically transformed to anticipate boomers

Widespread use of school vouchers Transformation of K-12 education Higher education radically reforms

The education election Immigration of knowledge workers actively encouraged

End of five-year welfare transition

Global green revolution in agricultural biotech

US$10 billion in online sales Global network

Alan Greenspan retires, Fed lifts foot off brakes Health care industry booming on new biotech

US economy growing at 4 percent Wholesale transformation of automobile and petrochemical industries begins

US productivity measures revised

All-American Free Trade Agreemen

Growt h of world GDP tops an astounding 6 percent

Third stage of h

High-bandwidt

Intel introduces

Reliable voice recognition

problems for China domestically - and for the rest of the what can be considered a middle-class lifestyle. In the
world. The overheated economy puts severe strain on the space of one full 80-year life span, Asia has gone from
fabric of Chinese society, particularly between the increas- almost uninterrupted poverty to widespread wealth.
ingly affluent urban areas on the coast and the 800 mil-
lion impoverished peasants in the interior. The nation's THE
relatively low tech smokestack economy also threatens
to single-handedly push the global environment over the EURO-
edge. The Chinese initially do little to reduce their level PEA N Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet,
of dependence on coal, which in the late 1990s still sup- SHU FFLE the new principles of openness and restruc-
plies three-quarters of the country's energy needs. Only turing are applied first in politics, then economics. In the
sustained efforts by the rest of the world to ensure that aftermath of the spectacular implosion of the Soviet
China has access to the very best transportation and indus- Union, most energyis spent promoting democracy and
trial technology avert an environmental catastrophe. dismantling the vestiges of the Cold War. With time, an
Occasionally using draconian measures, China manages equal amount of energy is applied to restructuring and
to avoid severe internal disturbance. By 2010, the sense retooling economies - in some obvious and not so obvi-
of crisis has dissipated. China is generally acknowledged ous ways.
to be on a path toward more democratic politics - though First, Europe at large has to reintegrate itself, both
not in the image of the West. economically and politically. Much of the 1990s is spent
With the reemergence of China's economic might, the trying to integrate eastern and western Europe. All eyes
3,500-year-old civilization begins to assert itself and play first focus on the new Germany, which powers through
a larger part in shaping the world. Chinese clan-based the process on the basis of sheer financial might. Next
culture happens to work very well within the fluid demands the more advanced of the eastern European countries -
of the networked global economy. Singapore and Hong Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic - get integrated,
Kong prove the point through the 1980s and 1990s, when first into NATO, with formal acceptance in 2000, and
the two city-states with almost no land mass or natural then into the European Union in 2002. The more prob-
resources become economic powers through pure human lematic countries of eastern Europe aren't accepted into
capital, primarily brainpower. the union for another couple years. Alongside this East-
For years, Chinese expatriates have established intri- West integration comes a more subtle integration
cate financial networks throughout Western countries, between the western European countries. With fits and
but especially in Asia. Many Southeast Asian economies starts, Europe moves toward the establishment of one
- if not governments - are completely dominated by the truly integrated entity. The European currency - the euro
overseas Chinese. By about 2005, the mainland Chinese - is adopted in 1999, with a few laggards, like Britain,
decide to capitalize on this by formalizing the Chinese holding out a few more years.
diaspora. Though the entity has no legal status vis-a.-vis Though the UK may have dragged its feet on the Euro-
other governments, it has substantial economic clout. pean currency measure, in an overall sense it's far ahead
That date also marks the absorption of Taiwan into China of the pack. The economic imperative of the era is not
proper. just to integrate externally but to restructure internally.
By 2020, the Chinese economy has grown to be the Right around 1980, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Rea-
largest in the world. Though the US economy is more gan begin putting together the formula that eventually
technologically sophisticated, and its population more leads toward the new economy. At the time it looks bru-
affluent, China and the United States are basically on a tal: busting unions, selling off state-owned industries,
par. China has also drawn much of Asia in its economic and dismantling the welfare state. In hindsight, the pain
wake - Hong Kong and Shanghai are the key financial pays off. By the mid-1990s, the US unemployment rate
nodes for this intricate Asian world. is near 5 percent, and the British rate has dropped to
Asia is jammed with countries that are economic pow- almost 6 percent. In contrast, unemployment on the
erhouses in their own right. India builds on its top-notch European continent hovers at 11 percent, with some indi-
technical training and mastery of the lingua franca of the vidual countries even higher.
high tech world, English, to challenge many Western Indeed, through the 1990s, the rest of Europe remains
countries in software development. Malaysia's audacious trapped in the legacy of its welfare states, which main-
attempt to jump-start an indigenous high tech sector tain their political attractiveness long after they outlive
through massive investments in a multimedia supercor- their economic worth. By 2000, chronic unemployment
ridor pays off. The former communist countries Vietnam and mounting government deficits finally force leaders
and Cambodia turn out to be among the most adept at on the continent to act. Despite widespread popular pro-
capitalism. The entire region - from the reunited Koreas tests, especially in France, Europe goes through a painful
to Indonesia to the subcontinent - is booming. In just 20 economic restructuring much like the United States did a
years, 2 billion people have made the transition into decade before. As part of this perestroika, it retools its

W IRED JULY 1997

 economy using the new information technologies. This
restructuring, both of corporations and governments,
has much the same effect it had on the US economy. The
European economy begins to surge and create many new
jobs. By about 2005, Europe - particularly in the north-
ern countries like Germany - even has the beginnings
of a serious labor shortage as aging populations begin
to retire.
Then the Russian economy kicks in. For 15 years, Rus-
sia had been stumbling along in its transition to a capi-
talist economy, periodically frightening the West with
overtures that it might return to its old militaristic ways.
But after almost two decades of wide-open Mafia-style
capitalism, Russia emerges in about 2005 with the basic
underpinnings of a solid economy. Enough people are
invested in the new system, and enough of the population
has absorbed the new work ethic, that the economy can
function quite well - with few reasons to fear a retrench-
ment. This normalization finally spurs massive foreign
investment that helps the Russians exploit their immense
natural resources, and the skills of a highly educated
populace. These people also provide a huge market for
Europe and the rest of the world.
THE
GLOBAL
STAM- By the close of the 20th century, the more devel-
PEDE oped Western nations are forging ahead on a
path of technology-led growth, and booming Asia is
showing the unambiguous benefits of developing market
economies and free trade. The path for the rest of the
world seems clear. Openness and restructuring. Restruc-
turing and openness. Individually, nations begin adopt-
ing the formula of deregulating, privatizing, opening up
to foreign investment, and cutting government deficits.
Collectively, they sign onto international agreements
that accelerate the process of global integration - and fuel
the long boom.
Two milestones come in 1997: the Information Tech-
nology Agreement, in which almost all countries trading
in IT agree to abolish tariffs by 2000, and the Global
Telecommunications Accord, in which almost 70 leading
nations agree to rapidly deregulate their domestic tele-
com markets. These two developments quickly spread the
two key technologies of the era: computers and telecom-
munications.
Everyone benefits, particularly the underdeveloped '
economies, which take advantage of the leapfrog effect,
adopting the newest, cheapest, best technology rather
than settling for obsolete junk. IT creates a remarkable
dynamic that brings increasing power, performance, and
quality to each new generation of the technology - plus
big drops in price. Also, wireless telecommunications
allow countries to avoid the huge effort and expense of
building wired infrastructures through crowded 168 ~
Contrarian
not less - government

Libertarian
Wired: You've been in the unusual position of advocat- we need to build large-scale Internet presences in the
ing more freedom of speech - as well as more govern- places they haven't been before.
ment involvement - on the Internet. Is that a paradox? So government has a role in building the Internet?
Malamud: It's really fashionable now to say that govern- If you look at how other infrastructures were deployed,
ment belongs in the "real" world and that cyberspace is everything from electricity to radio, you'll see that what
a new and different world, and therefore government we're going through now with the Internet isn't really
really has no role to play in cyberspace. But if that's the that much different than what we've been going through
way we look at it, we'll eventually end up with actual for the last 100 years. Sometimes the public loses the
anarchy, as opposed to what the Internet is today, which fight. In some places we end up with the city infrastruc-
is just kind of chaotic. I don't really understand where ture planning going dreadfully awry, with strip malls
that antigovernment belief system comes from. Tech- and huge freeways, and no public transit and no parks.
nology in itself is no guarantee of freedom of speech. Now the Internet is another infrastructure that has to
What could government do to guarantee our freedoms? be put into that mix.
Our personal freedoms can be protected by cryptogra- Can government help solve While many Internet pioneers have turned
phy like PGP. But patents have turned the fundamental Internet brownouts? their attention toward getting rich, Carl
technology behind cryptography, which we all need to There will always be traffic Malamud has remained focused on the
use every day, into private property. The government jams. You fools, it's under public interest. A passionate proponent
needs to get involved and reclaim those technologies construction! And it always of the public's right to access government
for all people. will be under construction, documents, the pugnacious Malamud
But the government is doing the opposite, trying to and you always will get those goaded the Securities and Exchange Com-
prevent the spread of strong crypto - unless law problems. But if it gets bad mission to make its data available online.
enforcement has a key to eavesdrop. enough - if service providers He founded the Internet Multicasting
That's just a naIve few in the government looking for are providing really bad Service, a nonprofit research group that
some kind of magic bullet. The FBI's saying, "Well, gee, service and there isn't an was in effect the first Net radio station,
it would be great if we had the key to every conversation. alternative - then maybe the transmitting live coverage from the floor
We could just turn on our magic little machine and - government's going to have of Congress. Malamud also was the force
boom - we'd have them." But that's not real police work, to step in and figure it out. behind the Internet 1996 World Exposi-
and that's not forensic science. Not having the magic key Where else should we apply tion, wresting cooperation from govern-
to the front door isn't going to make much of a differ- public money? ments and big businesses worldwide to
ence to any investigation. We must continue encour- lay down a new international pipeline
That's exactly why I think people have to be involved aging Net-oriented R&D - and set up a "Central Park" megaserver
with government. Around the world, governments are some government, some - in line with his vision of making free
defining the rules for the Internet now. If we don't speak corporate. It's critical that public spaces available on the Web. His
up and make our views known, then we end up with we keep pushing the R&D book on the exposition, A World's Fair
misguided legislation like the key escrow and digital envelope, because the stan- for the Global Village, will be published
telephony bills and Exon amendments. dards that end up coming in September. Wired spoke with Mala-
Are there any regulations you'd like to see introduced? out of that work - the World mud, who is now a visiting scientist at
Yes, spamming and mailbombing definitely ought to be Wide Web being the best the MIT Media Lab, about government's
crimes. If you knowingly transmit 10,000 mail messages example - are the result of a role on the Net.
in a one-hour period to a particular host, I ought to be long-term strategy. There was
able to call the police and have you arrested. a very long beta development period for Tim Berners-
Won't more government and more regulation choke Lee and the World Wide Web.
development of the Internet? We've talked about government. Does the Internet fos-
There'S all sorts of different degrees of government, and ter more participatory democracy?
if all you think about is a US federal government that's I don't think the Internet has ever been the kind of hap-
doing regulation, that's a really naIve view of government. py global collective where everyone did the best thing
Obviously, government does many other things - especially for everyone else. This is not the Rainbow Tribe. But it
at the local level. Working with the government at the local is an interdependent life - if I screw up my mail system,
level builds community, and the Internet is about build- then I screw up your computer, because all my mail
ing community. I think we need some true public-works bounces to you and fills up your temp drive.
projects, and they might be funded by a local government That may be the key aspect of the Internet - that what
group or a nonprofit funded by corporate donations. But I do can really affect you, and because we're neighbors
we damn well better learn how to work together. We may
Lynn Ginsburg ([email protected]) is ajrequent not like each other, but I'll certainly say hi when I see you
contributor to various print and Web publications, on the road, because otherwise you might get pissed off
including Wired, HotWired, NetGuide, and CNET. and let your dog loose in my yard. __ _

WIRED JU L Y 1997
W I RED JU L Y 1 997
 oubters call the digital age dehumanizing, but where you have to present a body part to walk in the

[Q) the joke is on them: the human body lies at the

heart of plans to wire banks, streamline govern-
door or access a file. The organizers of the CardTechl
SecurTech trade show, an annual event since 1990 now
ment handouts, secure the workplace, even protect your attended by 7,000 participants, say industry revenues
Pc. Driver's licenses, credit cards, and office keys as we are expected to more than triple from almost US$16
know them are dinosaurs; the age of the body-part pass- million in 1996 to $50 million by 1999. The number of
word, or biometric, is upon us. Our unique biological biometric devices in use is expected to jump from 8,550
characteristics - hand geometry, eye structure, finger- in 1996 to more than to 50,000 by the end of decade.
prints, voice patterns, even the way we smell - are Several products are still in their infancy, and vendors
being mapped and digitized as part are known to exaggerate the reliability of their machines.
of a booming new industry. But industry leaders claim the free market will eliminate
Biometric technology operates much underperformers.ln the meantime, lab coats continue
like the gadgets in spy flicks such as to search from head to toe for that elusive unerring yet
Mission : Impossible - computerized nonintrusive biometric.
~~~W[?@ill scanners confirm a person's identity by
examining a biological feature, then BIOMETRICS: A BLUEPRINT
LJllil\Jill
[?@)illlliil @[? m~D~@ matching it with a digital file containing Enrolling your eye in an IriScan computer is like watch-
those exact characteristics. Identifiable ing the opening credits of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo:
traits can be physical, such as hand your giant pupil peers out from the monitor, lashes bat-
contours or retina patterns. They can ting, tear ducts leaking. High-resolution cameras capture
be behavioral, such as voice modulation the visible surface of the iris from 10 to 12 inches away,
~@~~~~@ or keystroke typing rhythms. And some then reg ister a 512-byte IrisCode composed of a 15- or
can seem a little outlandish: features 20-line string of numbers and letters that varies each
[1J]~ CS@aYi1lliil@@[fffi]~ being tested for singularity among the time you look into the lens.
planet's 6 billion people include knuckle IriScan Inc. of Mount Laurel, New Jersey, markets its
mw m®iJl}{] @Dm©l creases, body odors, even acoustic head technology as "the friendly biometric." Boasting that
resonances. the iris is "the most unique feature displayed on the
~~~@ So, are we ready for this form of being human body," IriScan is attracting customers worldwide.
digital - to have parts of our fingers, Researchers at the National Institutes of Health talked
LJllil~ [?~~ eyes, and speech stored in central data- to IriScan about using its machine on lab animals to
bases and traded like commodities by alleviate the problem of pairing the wrong data with
direct marketers, insurance companies, and government the wrong animal. Tokyo's OKI Electric Industry Company,
agencies? The smartcard and financial services indus- a leading supplier of automatic teller machines, recently
tries are talking up biometrics as privacy's friend, and contracted with Sensar Inc. for $41 million to use IriScan's
experts say biometric IDs are unmatched for security - patented process in developing iris identification for a
you can't forge or, presumably, steal someone's body fleet of Japanese banks.
part. Come the millennium, we may be feeding pieces of The next frontier, company gurus say, is computer
ourselves into an ever-expanding array of computerized security.lriScan is developing camera like eyes that will
banking files, credit card registries, and state and federal sit atop a PC or behind the screen, checking at preset
databanks. intervals whether the person at your keyboard is indeed
Body parts already are used as passwords in various sporting your iris, with all its distinctive fibers, furrows,
systems, public and private: Inmates must submit to reti- coronas, crypts, freckles, rifts, and pits.
nal scanning in Cook County, Illinois, coming and going Another company wants to do the same with faces.
from jail to court appearances. Connecticut and Penn- "Your face is your PIN," declares the slogan for the product
sylvania are two of several states that now use digitized One-on-One, made by Identification Technologies Inter-
finger imaging to match welfare records with recipients. national in Coral Gables, Florida. The system maps facial
Frequent travelers crossing into Canada from Montana contours, recording them as digital codes. A single unit,
can zip through an automated voice-verification system which runs $2,000 to $3,000, includes software and is
run by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service. compatible with a standard Pc.
In the private sector, Lotus employees pass through Faces puffy with hangovers or water retention won't
a hand-geometry scanner to pick up their children from trip up One-on-One, claims Identification Technolog ies
in-house day care. Coca-Cola is using hand geometry at spokesperson Kenneth Weiss, but it may be confused
the time clock to prevent workers from "buddy punching" by beards, glasses, or similar disguises. Citicorp is testing
a late colleague's time card.
Just how big is this market? There are now more than Ann Davis ([email protected]) is a New York-
10,000 locations - from bank vaults to blood banks - based legal affairs writer.

W I RED J ULY 1 997

the system for use at its bank machines.
Moving down the body, hands and fingers hold even
more promise. The market for digital finger imaging is
well-developed because of a strong demand from law
enforcement.ldenticator, a leader in the field of digital
finger imaging based in San Bruno, California, sells its
fingerprint scanners for $400 to $1,000. But Identicator
president Oscar Pieper hopes to mass-market his
machines for $30 to $50 within a few years. Already,
MasterCard is running television commercials featuring
Identicator scanners."Since the last thing you need is
one more number to remember, MasterCard is develop-
ing the single-digit PIN code," the ad prociaims."Some-
day a computer chip in your card will recognize your
unique m(jrk."
Another technology exploiting the uniqueness of our
digits is finger geometry. Scanning the dimensions of
one or more digits, these machines typically cost about
$1 ,500. In 1995, The Walt Disney Company contracted
with the Swiss firm BioMet Partners to test a 3-D, two-
finger geometry device - the Digi-2 - at entrance turn-
stiles for holders of season passes to Walt Disney World
in Orlando, Florida.
The first modern biometric device, which debuted
more than 20 years ago at the Shearson Hamill invest-
ment bank on Wall Street, was a hand-geometry reader
that measured finger length. Since then, a best-seller
has emerged: the ID-3D Handkey from Recognition Sys ~ l'
tems Inc. The device scans fingers plus the tops and sides
of the hand with a video camera, then converts the data
with compression algorithms. Nearly 4,000 of the machines
were sold in 1996. They're used at immigration check-
points at San Francisco International Airport, for access
to the Colombian legislature, and to verify the identity
of donors at sperm banks.
Some vendors think the answer is not at you r fingertips,
but on the tip of your tongue. Voice verification is already
one of the most reliable biometrics, say government
researchers at the National Security Agency, which mon-
itors its use in numerous federal computer facilities.
Several states use voice recognition for parolees on home
detention .
Mirroring its system in place on the Canadian border,
the Immigration and Naturalization Service has conceived
of a commuter lane with a "voice box" into which frequent
travelers across the Mexican border will speak a phrase
of their choice. (When it dawned on the Feds that a drive-
through voice checkpoint might miss illegal aliens hid-
ing in vehicle freight compartments, the INS asked a
federal research lab to develop sensors that can detect
heartbeats hidden in a cargo hold.)
According to Personal Identification News, a respected
industry newsletter, major corporations, including Martin
Marietta, GM, and Hertz, are protecting their computer
facilities with voice technology. Voice systems also guard
private estates from Silicon Valley to Latin America . 174 ~
 Wired: When you started, computer shows were pretty about your private life. My fear is that we're spreading
rare. Now we're overrun. Do you find it hard to com- a lot of wrong information. Just because it's online
pete, particularly with the influx of splashy tech TV doesn't make it true. We're heading toward something
programs? called the Pierre Salinger syndrome, which is endemic
Gunn: Not really. To me, radio and TV are both visual to people who have not hung around the new technol-
mediums. On the radio, I'm having a private conversa- ogy and are fooled by its shortfalls.
tion with my listeners in which I try to draw pictures Looking back, what promising technologies turned
with my words. And this gives me many advantages out to be the biggest disappointment?
over TV. We had Carolyn Huntoon, director of NASA I don't believe there are any dead-end technologies.
Johnson Space Center, for instance, and she was It's just that their time hasn't come; they require other
telling a great story about what happens to astronauts technologies to bloom. Twenty-five years ago, color
when they're in space for long periods - loss of bone graphics seemed to be the hottest thing ever. Every-
mass, things like that. Her voice, in isolation, was body got real excited. But there just wasn't enough
absolutely mesmerizing. But her face didn't move. On computing power around, there weren't enough appli-
a television screen, she would have been dead meat. cations, and so it didn't make practical sense. Today
So I don't see the TV competition as bad. Right now, color monitors are a dime a dozen. Artificial intelli-
we're trying to make sense of an overwhelming wave gence hasn't died - its time hasn't come.
of life-changing technology. People If you squint into the future, who is going to be on
Ten years ago, Moira Gunn cleared are desperate to make sense of it. your 20th-anniversary show?
her throat, leaned into a microphone There are so many computer shows Definitely politicians, because they're so blatantly
at KUSF in San Francisco, and began out there because there's an under- uninformed, both specifically and conceptually about
the first broadcast of Tech Nation ... lying panic. technology and its impact. They need to be forward-
Americans & Technology, an inno- Panic about what? thinking and visionary. I'm not talking about command-
vative weekly program that explores Fundamental changes in the busi- and-control leadership so much as leadership about
the way technology reshapes our ness world, for instance. The corpo- where we're going. What we can really do, how we can
lives. After 400 interviews with ration as we know it is dying. There foster a society that is really good for everybody.

GUNN CLUB Tech talk show host Moira Gunn on clueless politicians,

everyone from Edward Teller to weren't a lot of great corporations So you were not impressed by Bill Clinton and AI Gore
Scott Adams, Gunn, a former NASA before the industrial age, because yanking coax cable through a few high schools for
computer scientist, remains the they couldn't communicate plans NetDay?
grand dame of tech talk, broadcast- up and down. Napoleon's army Please. Don't come out here with your polo shirts and
ing over PBS to nearly 100 domestic showed how to organize a big group string wire through these schools when there are no
radio stations and to millions of of people to do anything. The key computers to hook them to, when we're letting teach-
listeners throughout the world over was coinmand and control. You ers go. It's inSUlting. I didn't hear enough philosophy
Armed Forces Radio. couldn't tell the whole plan to of education or enough sense of where they're going to
everyone, so you'd communicate send these kids.
only the part that was needed to get the job done. The Any guests who stand out over the years?
first modern corporations modeled themselves on this. Charlie Trimble, who invented one of the first hand-
But now that doesn't work; all the data is networked held GPS devices, told me about traveling in Africa on
and available to everybody. Decisions can be made at a the road coming north out of Nairobi. There's a big
far lower point in the organization. But people in their setup there - souvenir stands, food, a big sign saying
hearts still want to act like Napoleon. you've reached the equator. Charlie's friends are taking
How about on a societal level? Where can adjustments a picture of him with the new GPS when he looks
be made? down and discovers they're not at the equator! The
We can start by clearly differentiating between public GPS is showing that it's up the road. So they find the
information, which should be available to everybody, mayor of this little hamlet, and they explain about
and private information, which should be available these satellites going around the earth and everything
to no one. Information technology sometimes makes and tell him that the real equator is a mile up the
our lives a sieve. You should have to give permission road. The guy says: Oh, we knew that. But the parking
before somebody like TRW starts selling information up there is terrible. __ _

James Daly ([email protected]) is ajeatures editor Chat with Moira Gunn live Wednesday, June 25, at
at Wired. 6 p.m. PDT in the Wired Talk room at www.talk.coml.

WIRED JULY 1997

W IRE D J U LY 1997
WArT FER ME!
 On a steamy Caribbean island,
gathered to make the global financial
Including governments.

M
onday night in Anguilla. The ceiling fan makes an
oil-starved groaning sound while blood-drunk mos-
quitoes dance in the churning air. My hotel room
has an impoverished look, with doors hacked out
of plywood and bumpy walls daubed with latex white. There's
no chair, no table, no phone, no TV, not even a lock on the door
- just two creaky old twin beds and a bureau that might have
been salvaged from a yard sale. To switch on the bathroom light
I must tighten a bare bulb in an antique porcelain wall fixture
that dangles from one screw; when I run water into the sink,
much of it leaks from the waste pipe onto my feet. Of course, for
US$35 a night I wasn't expecting a mint on my pillow - but here
I'm more likely to find a stray gecko.
Outside, a car approaches on South Hill Road, a narrow strip
of unmarked, eroded asphalt that runs the length of this island
in the British West Indies. The car stops, a door slams, and
snatches of manic chatter float through the heavy air: " ... dif-
ferential fault analysis ... hash functions ... Tep/IP on a proxy
server ... export licenses for triple-DES under ITAR.... "

Charles Platt ([email protected]) wrote ''Digital Ink" in Wired 5.05.

W I RED J ULY 1 997

 Their voices build to an excited torrent of acronyms, then fade Still, a loose-knit coalition continues to fight back. It includes
as the geeks enter the hotel lobby. academics, who have laid the seemingly innocent theoretical
Nerds in Anguilla? Indeed, almost 80 of them. From the foundations of cryptography, and cypherpunks, mostly anar-
United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Mexico, Hong chists and libertarians, who won't rest till every Net user is
Kong, and parts unknown they have congregated like squirrels immune to government surveillance.
scenting food at a picnic. Together they constitute a singular Perhaps it seems far-fetched that socially dysfunctional, long-
event: FC97, the First International Conference on Financial haired computer geeks could render governments impotent or
Cryptography - five days in February of relentlessly technical financial institutions obsolete. Yet PGP - Pretty Good Privacy,
tutorials in this, urn, tropical vacation paradise. the "people's encryption software" - was developed by just one
antiauthoritarian agitator, Phil Zimmermann. After PGP was
Room with a view of the future distributed free across the Net, federal prosecutors began inves-
Financial cryptography? It sounds dull and incomprehensible. tigating Zimmermann in 1993, threatening him with a possible
Still, if you spend money, it's likely to change your life. 52 months in prison for allowing the export of a "munition."
This is a crucial time, when giddy prophecies about electronic Almost three years later, the investigation was dropped, and
commerce may soon be fulfilled. With electronic money online PGP has now become a viable commercial product. Score:
from DigiCash to Cybercash, and soon from Digital ... smart- Zimmermann 1, State Department O.
card schemes from Mondex and Hewlett-Packard ... an e-com- The message? Don't underrate academics and cypherpunks.
merce announcement expected from Microsoft ... a whole new But why have they chosen to have a summit meeting on an
financial-transaction operating system based on Java ... within obscure Caribbean island where there seems to be more goats
a few years millions of people should be making purchases, pay- than people? Two reasons: 1) Anguilla is a tax haven with a
ing bills, trading stocks, even obtaining loans via the Net. Bahamian-style banking system, and 2) Vincent Cate lives here.
How much this will all be worth remains educated guess- When Cate was a grad student at Carnegie Mellon University,
work. Suppose we have 10 million Net users each making an for his PhD thesis he devised a radically improved system built
average of $10 in online purchases every month; that's already on top of FTP, to make files on the Net as easily accessible as

Itbts a crucial time when giddy DroDhl~~jes

a out e-commerce may soon "'be fu ~fiJled. _
more than $1 billion of annual cash flow. Suppose people start those on your hard drive. Then the World Wide Web clicked and
settling credit card accounts and utility bills electronically. FTP was forgotten, prompting Cate to abandon his thesis, quit
Suppose emoney takes off faster than email - suddenly everyone college, and think about getting into Net commerce. As a serious
has an account. IDC, the Boston-based research house, esti- libertarian, he resented paying half his income to the govern-
mates that online commerce will be worth $119 billion by 2000. ment, so he went shopping for a country that would demand
However, this can happen only if systems are secure - very less while being friendly and safe.
secure - which means strong encryption. US financial institu- Late in 1994, around the time of his 31st birthday, he ended
tions are allowed to use strong code for international transac- up 200 miles east of Puerto Rico, in Anguilla, where there are
tions, but the Clinton administration has waged a ferocious, no income or corporate taxes. Or sales tax.
tenacious campaign to discourage everyone else, supposedly to "It's a $500-a-month rental with a million-dollar view," he
protect us from "the terrorist threat." Earlier this year, a platoon says with contagious positivism as he stands in his living room,
of Clintonites visited several cities across the US to make pre- gazing out the windows. I see a rutted dirt road, some power
sentations to audiences of local skeptics and argue the case for lines, and boxy little houses made from concrete blocks scat-
the policy now known derisively among cypherpunks as GAK tered across a hillside of dry scrub. But beyond these dissatisfy-
(government access to keys). ing details, ah, there is the view - a strip of sparkling ocean and
But are coded messages among terrorists really what worries the mysterious, gray, mountainous silhouette of Saint Marten, a
the government? The crypto that hides criminal communications neighboring island straight out of a swashbuckling Robert Louis
is no different from that which can hide everyday consumer Stevenson novel.
transactions; if the flow of money among citizens becomes invis- Inside, Cate seems less concerned with visual perfection.
ible in this way, currency regulations become unenforceable and He rents the place furnished, complete with a flower-patterned
taxes are uncollectible. Thus, unrestricted encryption could seri- couch and a black-velvet painting of native islanders against
ously undermine the powers of government - which may be the a lurid sunset. Instead of doing anything about this suburban
main reason France, China, Belgium, Russia, and Israel have traditional decor, in typical nerd fashion he's simply layered
restricted citizens' ability to encrypt messages. the place with books, papers, computers, and cabling.

W I RED J ULY 1997

 This is the kind of home where you don't hesitate to put your
feet up on the couch, and Cate does exactly that as he starts
reminiscing about his early days in Anguilla. "I wanted to start
an Internet bank," he says. "I would take money in with credit
cards, hold it for 90 days to guard against cancellations, then
issue the electronic cash. But the local banks didn't like the idea
of me accepting credit card numbers over the Internet, and I
was forced to deal with them, because Visa and MasterCard
require merchants and their banks to be in the same country
so they're under the same laws."
As a fallback, he started offering Net access to local residents
via a single phone line. People could dial in, download their
email, read it offline, then upload their replies.
Cate now maintains a Web server that hosts pages for busi-
nesses wanting to operate from a tax-free location, and he has
many more ideas for the future, such as an information exchange
listing potential sellers and buyers of stocks online. The SEC
wouldn't like this, but in Anguilla it might be possible.
Wearing a Matt Groening "Life in Hell" T-shirt, black denim
shorts, and leather sandals, Cate toys with a Rubik's cube and
speaks abstractedly, as if his brain is multitasking during our
conversation.
But when I ask him about the bigger picture online, he pulls
himself into a sitting position and gets serious. "I believe that if
there is widespread use of encryption;' he says, "the Internet is
going to drastically change society. You'll be able to do your busi-
ness offshore, with complete privacy, and many forms of taxation
won't really be possible. Ten years from now, well over 50 percent
of pure Internet businesses will be incorporated in tax havens
and will have their Web pages in tax havens. They'll be able to
keep all their money instead of just half, and they'll have none
of the paperwork hassles that you have in the United States."
No surprise, then, that when a cypherpunk named Robert
Hettinga suggested a conference on financial cryptography, and
MIT academic Rafael Hirschfeld agreed to recruit participants
using his status as an emoney researcher, Cate agreed to host
the event. It was timely, it was vital, it might turn a profit, and
it should attract some interesting people.
The scheme worked: He has more visitors than he knows what
to do with, including a half dozen cryptoanarchists who have
eschewed hotels and are using his home as a crash pad. Cate,
however, is literally above it all. He's very civilized, very polite,
and at 6 foot 4 he always seems to be looking over people's
heads, toward something that only he sees. Perhaps it's another
million-dollar view - not of the landscape outside his window
but of the Net's future. The immediate prospects may be some-
what dissatisfying, like the hillside of scrub below his terrace,
but beyond that ... ah, there lies the vista of Internet commerce.

Remote possibilities
The conference schedule is a killer: six or seven highly technical
presentations every day, from 8:30 a.m. till 12:30 p.m. In the
afternoons, though, there's nothing at all, because Cate and
Hettinga assume that everyone will want to be on the beach.
Here we are at a scenic cove where pirates, rum smugglers,
and slave traders once made landfall, and the ocean's vivid

W I RED JULY 1997

azure looks artificially enhanced. At sun- management, and substance' in a country,
set, in a colorfully painted shack on the or just nominees doing things. A server
white sand, a cocktail party is hosted by here, with transactions going through it,
Lynwood Bell, a stern but hearty charac- adds to the mind, management, and sub-
ter who projects an image of corporate stance. If an offer is made on Vince's Web
respectability that is entirely appropriate, site, under British common law, the offer
since he owns Hansa Bank, based here on was made in Anguilla. If the offer is
the island. accepted, I define that as where we check
"Anguilla used to have a large number of the person's credit. We do the credit check
offshore banks;' he says. "But several years from here - electronically, of course."
ago a British commission reviewed their So, Bell has his niche market carefully
records - and today only mine remains." mapped out, and now he's just waiting
Yes, Anguilla still has colonial status, for Net businesses to realize what a deal
with both a governor and some pressure they're missing. (He isn't interested in indi-
from Britain to maintain a respectable viduals wanting private bank accounts;
image. Bell says he values the stability only corporate customers.)
that this encourages, because "it would Meanwhile, also at the party is the
be much harder to corrupt the govern- Honorable Victor F. Banks, minister of
ment here than in some other Caribbean finance, planning, and economic devel-
countries." (He won't say, but he's proba- opment in the Anguilla government. He's
bly thinking of Antigua or Saint Kitts and a barrel-chested, hardy man who's treat-
Nevis, where there have been memorable ing all the guests with scrupulous respect
scandals.) - even the hairiest types who look really
To what extent does his bank assure twisted and paranoid. For all he knows,

ilia still has British

colonial status.
privacy? "Anguilla has strong secrecy they may be architects of online com-
laws;' he says, sounding cautious. "But merce, and Anguilla wants a piece of it.
we do not provide secrecy from money Banks gives me a straight sales pitch for
laundering and fraud." his country. "Here in Anguilla we are well
Bell used to be the Canadian staff sales situated for Internet commerce. Our banks "The three great elements of mod-
manager for IBM, so he has no trouble are well regulated, clean, secure; we are ern civil ization," sa id Jean Paul
seeing "an expanse of possibilities" to be very vigilant against criminal activity; we Richter, "are gunpOWder, pri nt ing,
opened up by the Internet, and his vision have strong rules against money launder- and the Protestant religion." Each of
sounds remarkably similar to Cate's: ing and traffic in illegal drugs. We have these emerges from Robert The's
"Companies are going to want to set up mutual legal assistance with the US that series of Bible guns, a sly synthesis
their business on the Internet in a country allows it to get information from us about of Western history, the American
where they get freedom from taxation." any clientele involved in criminal activity, soul, and a certain skill with a scroll
In fact, he already has an agreement with although it can't go on fishing expeditions saw. The Illinois artist says he
Internet service provider UUNet Canada to find out about tax avoidance." prefers to work w ith Gideon Bibles
to provide "location-optimized commerce Fine - except that this sales pitch is from used bookstores, because
on the Internet." designed for the wrong audience. Most someone had to steal them in the
But suppose I form a corporation in cypherpunks don't give a damn about first place. In The's hands, the Word
Anguilla, put up a Web page on Cate's money laundering or illegal drugs; they ends with a bang, not a whimper.
server, and open an account at Bell's tend to view government as an archaic For more irreverent texts, set
bank while I remain physically in the encumbrance ripe for demolition. Banks your sights on www.enteract.com/
US. Does that really exempt me from seems naIvely unaware of this, and I can't -the/bookgun.htm. - Tom Claburn
American corporate taxes? help wondering how his government will
"Quite possible," Bell claims. "Tax react when it learns the truly subversive Tom Claburn is production coordina-
authorities always ask if there is 'mind, nature of Internet activism. 175 .. tor at Wired.

W I RED JU L Y 1 99 7
W I RED JU L Y 1997
 ·........................................................................................................................ .

......................... .............. .. ·1· ............................... ·· ....r.. ·.............................. ~ ................................... "roo ..........................."........................................................ ..

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~ ................... ~...... , ..................... ~. ... ..... ................;................................................................................................................................................................
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( 0 M PUT E R S
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ONLY TWO TOOLS ARE NECES- cisco. Today, the place is a huge
DIE •
ning of the 286. Now it's almost hundred dollars to install a new
SARY TO DISASSEMBLE A warehouse stuffed with a jumble worthless, except as scrap." Alas, Pentium chip.
COMPUTER: A PHILLIPS-HEAD of PC parts in the middle of upscale poor Yorick indeed. There is plenty of outdated gear
SCREWDRIVER AND THE FLOOR . Marin County. After turning up While some of the equipment is to go around, plenty to be dropped
Almost everything comes apart one of his favorite songs - "Mean pure junk, much of it will eventually on the ground, still more to be
with screws, but once in a while Machine" by The Cramps - Burgett's go into fully functioning machines thrown away. Computers don't die
you have to get tough and use ready to give me the grand tour. destined for schools and charities. anymore - they become obsolete.
the floor tool. James Burgett illus- First stop: a rubber trash can Burgett's center gives away 40 to Drives and monitors sometimes
trates. He grabs hold of the beige with piles of motherboards, VGA 50 free computers a month, each fail but can always be replaced. As
PC chassis I've been working on, cards, and Ethernet cards spilling with a one-year guarantee. On one for the electronics, even Intel can't
lifts it up, and drops the whole over the top. The container is shelf, there's a neat stack of a dozen really say how long its processors
fucking business on the concrete waiting for one of the center's 2400-baud modems bound for a last. And there's no market incen-
with a big crash. "You can't break more advanced interns - say, human rights organization in tive to figure it out, either, since
it," Burgett explains gently. "It's someone who can discern a serial Guatemala. The phone lines there the chips will probably outlive the
already broken!" connector from a Centronics con- can't handle high bandwidth, so machine's moving parts. Besides,
Burgett is a big bear of a man nector - to come along and sort these slow modems will be perfect. anyone who tries to study the life
with tight coils of hair held behind the circuitry into the wooden bins On another shelf, cannibalized span of an integrated circuit prob-
his head by a rubber band. We're that line the workshop walls. floppy drives wait to be swapped ably won't be around to see the
fixing broken and obsolete equip- Burgett pulls a hard drive from into machines with busted ones. results - we may be talking cen-
ment at Computer and Technology a scrap heap and, like Hamlet Over at his workbench, Burgett has turies. More often than not, the
Resource Centers International, holding aloft a skull, says, "Here's a discarded computer tower with machines in Burgett's warehouse
a nonprofit business he founded a 40-megabyte C8 251. Used to be no CPU. To stretch its budget a little run fine, but simply couldn't keep
four years ago in San Rafael, Cali- the standard of the industry at the further, The Dixie School, a local pace with the demands placed
fornia, 15 miles north of San Fran- end of the XT era and the begin- K-5, is paying the center a few upon them.

BY BOB PARKS PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN HARDING

WIRED JULY 1997

 Computers are becoming obso-
lete more and more quickly, filling
up warehouses and recycling trucks
at an astonishing rate. When Gordon
Moore calculated that each new chip
contains twice as much capacity
as one made 18 months before, he
didn't mention that his law also has
an inverse: in theory, hardware sold
six years ago has one-sixteenth the
processing power of machines sold
today. Industry analysts say most
computers are now bought and
retired in three to five years, and
that life span is actually dropping -
a phenomenon Thomas Rhinelander
of Forrester Research attributes not
only to the advent of new operating
systems like Windows 9S and NT,
but also to new applications devel-
oped by corporations in-house.
Like the stages of a rocket, the
old, beige boxes in James Burgett's
warehouse have followed digital
technology's precipitous rise over
the last two decades, fueled its
momentum, then fallen off some-
where in deep space. Now they're
floating around in limbo. The Gart-
ner Group estimates that worldwide
79 million computers had been
retired from their primary lives by
1996. This year another 31 million
PCs will join them, a number that
will climb to 42 million in 1999.
Rather than helping us reach escape
velocity with the speed of their
processors, old computers have
instead contributed to our imma-
nence - by tracing the vapor trail
of Moore's Law, obsolete machines
keep us rooted to the earth with
piles of dusty cases.
But if old equipment doesn't just
AT BURGETT'S 5,OOO-SQUARE- disappear, where does it go? Fewer
FOOT WAREHOUSE, A TEAM OF computers are ending up in landfills,
since businesses are starting to
TRAILING-EDGE TECHNICIANS
understand their value in terms of
AND VOLUNTEERS DISASSEMBLE refurbishing and scrap. Sixty-five
percent of corporate computers
COMPUTERS BY THE TRUCKLOAD.
simply become "closetfill," according
CHRISTIAN JAUREGUITO (LEFT)
IS BLIND - BURGETT GAVE HIM
A SCREWDRIVER, AND NOW
JAUREGUITO STRIPS PCS AS
FAST AS ANYONE.
 where the book value of each like a spider saving his dinner. With
machine was about $150:' explains the forklift, he piles the mummified
to the Gartner Group - and Dave Berman, an IBM spokesper- It's a spectacularly bright weekday gear 40 feet high in the cavernous
whether that means they end up son. "Two or three years ago these in San Rafael, with the green and warehouse, where it will wait until
in warehouses, empty offices, or machines were state of the art, brown contours of Mount Tamal- interns get a chance to test each
under desks is anyone's guess. but now they're not useful to our pais looming off in the distance. machine, fix it, or break it down
Another 15 percent are trashed, business. We can either give them In front of the enormous aluminum into parts. Everything goes through
scrapped, or recycled, 15 percent away or junk them and pay to have doors at Computer and Technology the facility in less than a month,
are resold, and 5 percent are someone take them away." Resource Centers International, and every piece of the animal is
shipped off to schools, charities, Two or three years may seem truckloads of antiquated machines used. Whole, the machines would
or nonprofits. like a short turnover period, but pour in all day long. Today's ship- sell for about 8 cents a pound. But
With so much burdensome then again, high tech firms have ment, a donation from the Univer- there's more money to be made
machinery lying around, it's tempt- faster churn than your average sity of California at San Francisco by stripping off circuit boards, cop-
ing to wonder why more corpora- bank or insurance house. Intel - Medical Center, consists mostly per wire, and steel than by selling
tions aren't making charitable which has donated 486s and of old IBM-compatibles and dusty them in one piece.
donations. Some firms worry that even Pentiums to the largest non- monitors. After we unload the The center supports itself on
proprietary data might acciden- profit refurbisher in the US, the machines fire-brigade style from sales of scrap and weird equipment
tally go out the door on an old Detwiler Foundation's Computers truck to pavement, they sit in an - like dumb line printers - and by
hard disk, or that the monitors - for Schools Program - realized it 8-foot pile with other donations: hawking a few machines retail
considered toxic waste because needed better machines to move PCs on one side, Macs on the other. every mo"n th. But most of the
of the lead they contain - might its employees to the Windows NT It's just one morning's hoard, but working computers go to charities
improperly end up in a landfill operating system. Bill Gates is there's already a jumble of broken and underfunded schools. One
with the company's serial num- not famous for his philanthropy, cases, weird configurations, and nearby recipient, The Marin AIDS
bers on them. Even if they're hop- but Microsoft's bloated software antiquated equipment that faded Project, uses a few dozen 386s
ing to get a healthy tax write-off has nevertheless resulted in a from memory 10 years ago -IBM and 486s to help shut-ins surf the
by donating used equipment to pleasant windfall for nonprofit XTs, PCs, and ATs; Apple lies; Mac Web to access data about the
charity, many companies are computer recyclers. 512s and SE/30s. disease. "When you have AIDS, you
reluctant to face the administra- Even given the small percentage Burgett, the center's cofounder have a level of fatigue that makes
tive nightmare of culling broken of donated machines, organizations and guru of obsolete technology, it really hard to get out of the
hardware and finding a worthy like Burgett's can hardly keep up walks around the pile like a con- house," explains Richard Lawson,
recipient. with the supply of PCs ready for noisseur. "I was in love with these a volunteer coordinator for the
Nonprofit recyclers tackle these recycling. The output of the hun- machines when they first came program. The Internet lets AIDS
problems by serving as middlemen, dred or so nonprofit refurbishing out," he says, pointing to an Apple Project members link to the
creating a paper trail for each com- centers around the US is well under II. Then, the skeleton of a server National Heath Center, various sup-
puter, wiping out data on the hard 50,000 units per year, but many catches his eye, and Burgett sticks port groups, the Bulletin of Exper-
disk, and fixing up old machines, caretakers of trailing-edge tech- his fingers into its guts. "See, it imental Treatments for AIDS, and
often with a one-year guarantee. nology work in makeshift ways comes with two 1-gig SCSI ports. alternative medicine sites. Tony
And gradually, businesses are and unlikely circumstances. When They're obsolete and generally Sewell, who publishes IntroPoz,
waking up to the fact that they can James Burgett started fixing com- unpleasant. But if it weren't for a newsletter of personal ads for
garner both tax advantages and puters for charity in his spare bed- us, this machine wouldn't go any- people with AIDS, is just one of
good publicity by donating old room in 1994, for example, he had where." many using machines provided
machines to nonprofit refurbish- no idea his operation would even- A few hours later I'm knee-deep by Burgett and company.
ers. The main benefactors of Bur- tually fill a 5,000-square-foot in old hardware, trying to avoid Although the AIDS Project gets
gett's work are big companies such warehouse. But as a freelance con- the teeth of a speeding forklift. mostly higher-end stuff, old dino-
as Visa, Cellular One, Wells Fargo, sultant, he was the only nerd will- For a while, I help sort machines saurs have their uses, too. The
and Autodesk. Last year, in return ing to transform a truckload of by processor and stack them on Cambodian Defenders Project,
for a US$150,000 deduction, IBM ancient IBMs into something use- pallets, cordwood-style, in the for instance, employs XT and 386
donated 1,000 top-notch machines ful for a nearby school. Look where sunshine. Rob Young, the network machines from the San Rafael
to Gifts in Kind, a Virginia-based it got him. supervisor, wraps the stacks in center as simple wordprocessors.
group that will divide them among sheets of industrial plastic wrap, The international group found
1,000 charities. "The computers ................................................................... that typed statements, when sub-
were on a depreciation schedule, Bob Parks ([email protected])
is an editorial assistant at HotWired.

W I RED JULY 1997

 be fun - even though she was to set up a huge processing oper-
initially too intimidated to open ation and expand the warehouse
mitted to Cambodian courtrooms, the box. And then there's me, the industry analysts - have an intern- space by 10,000 square feet. At a
have a much better success rate clueless journalist, mincing my way and-trainee component, so they remodeled military base in north-
in springing innocent detainees through my first PC. I certainly benefit the world twice: sending ern Marin, homeless people would
from jail. Since then, the seven didn't feel comfortable among the good computers out the door and learn skills under Mark Keithley's
old computers Burgett shipped green circuit boards inside, encir- giving people the skills to fix tutelage. But Homeward Bound
to that country have contributed cled by a maze of ribbon wiring, them. Computer and Technology has put the plan on hold for at
to the legal defense of SOO people switches, and jumpers - all identi- Resource Centers International least a year, and - more ominously
- with a third of them receiving fied only by a chaos of letters and could certainly use a few more - the group has started working
acquittal. numbers. interns, but Burgett stubbornly with Renew as well.
Working in an environment won't consider grant money. Though Burgett has a heart of
Back at the San Rafael warehouse, where it's impossible to break "It always comes with a leash," gold, he doesn't have the PR skills
the interns are playing a game. anything comes as a relief to peo- he complains. to persuade the corporate world
They've discovered that the air- ple like Mark Keithley, an enthu- The Detwiler Foundation, on the to donate better machines and
craft-quality aluminum rings used siastic guy in his early 30s with a other hand, has helped channel help the center's operations grow.
in large mainframe hard drives are deep tan and leathery skin. Keith- $10 million in state funds to com- He left home at 14, was homeless
fun to throw against the wall. Usu- ley's heard just the opposite dur- puter repair facilities and works for long periods, even dealt heroin
ally the 10-inch discs make a brassy ing much of his life - that he's with 52 vocational centers in Cal- for a time - his arms still bear a
clang when they hit the ground. likely to fuck things up no matter ifornia, including 13 state prisons. user's scars. Eventually he moved
But once in a while, they'll stick in what he does. Last year the state In 1996, they fitted a thousand of to Marin, figuring that life there
the drywall with a satisfying thunk. gave him $21,000 for three years' PacBell's old 386 machines with might be easier and gentler.
Many people try, but only the back Social Security payments, Pentium chips donated by Intel, After the move, Burgett stopped
sinewy, tattooed Rob Young can withheld because of a paperwork and last November they recon- dealing drugs and started run-
seem to make them stick. On a blunder."Never hand a junkie structed an additional 3,000 ning Dungeons & Dragons-type
more rambunctious day, Burgett 21 grand and say, 'Here, go get machines with 133-MHz Pentium fantasy games for local twenty-
and his troops wheel two main- your life together,''' Keithley says. chips. These topflight boxes went somethings in exchange for room
frames - originally worth hundreds The money vanished, and he got to schools all over the San Fran- and board. A lifetime techie and
of thousands of dollars - toward six months probation for driving cisco Bay area. To expand the pro- hacker, he finally got on his feet
each other at high speeds until without a license. gram nationally, Detwiler just doing freelance computer repair
they collide. Burgett says they're Keithley worked off some of his received half a million dollars from work.
trying to find a correlation between community service hours fixing AT&T to begin working with the All this gives him an unsur-
the original value or the white ele- machines for Burgett, and in the state and federal prison systems. passed ability to work with the
phants and their kinetic impact. So process, he learned a new trade - Yet Detwiler is just an administra- people for whom he can do a lot
far, the findings are inconclusive. now he's a full-time computer tive headquarters coordinating of good, but it can't touch the
Still, there's a method to Bur- technician with the center. He's the task. It has no warehouse and business savvy of the high-profile
gett's madness, and a reason probably not sober 24-7 yet, but no workshops of its own - which Detwiler Foundation - a group
behind his irreverence. His brand even so, he's gotten a chance at means it's missing half the fun. that has recruited Gayle Wilson,
of hands-on training makes interns a new life. In an industry where Even so, things have been look- wife of California's governor,
feel comfortable working around practical experience and a firm ing grim for Burgett & Co. One as a spokesperson. No one at
unfamiliar technology. One of grasp of computer argot is half of their main hardware sources, Burgett's outfit can deliver a com-
them, Christian Jaureguito, is a the battle, Keithley now tosses off Autodesk, dried up when the parable hard sell to Fortune 500
blind man who arrived at the cen- blase appraisals with the best of Sausalito-based firm grew miffed firms. At the end of the day, Com-
ter a year ago thinking he might them:"God, man, working with that Burgett wasn't placing dona- puter and Technology Resource
answer the phones or do office a Zenith drive is about as much tions with charities the company Centers International remains
work. Instead, Burgett handed him fun as bowel surgery," he groans. had chosen. Instead, Autodesk eight groovy people and a few
a screwdriver and a Pc. Jaureguito "It's all proprietary." went to Renew Computers, a for- interns working behind two big
started by unscrewing everything profit recycling business. garage doors in a former ice-
he could feel on the case, and now Most of the refurbishing outfits Burgett's also been a little down cream factory.
he can strip a PC as fast as any around the country - the "chip about a delayed collaboration Of course, there's no shortage
sighted person. There's also Katy, pickers," as they're known by between his organization and a of machines ready to be put xxx ~
a well-to-do woman who thought homeless advocacy group named
that working with computers might Homeward Bound. With Home-
ward Bound's help, Burgett wants

WIRED JULY 1997 D5m

THE DETWILER FOUNDATION HAS
HELPED CHANNEL $10 MILLION TO
CALIFORNIA COMPUTER REPAIR
FACILITIES AND VOCATIONAL
CENTERS, INCLUDING 13 STATE
PRISONS SUCH AS SOLEDAD (LEFT).

HMR'S CHRIS JANKOS (BOTTOM

LEFT) SOLICITS CORPORATIONS
FOR JUNK COMPUTERS; HIS FIRM
MOVES A MILLION POUNDS OF
ELECTRONICS GEAR EACH MONTH,
70 PERCENT OF IT BOUND FOR ASIA.

KIP CROSBY (BELOW), OF THE

COMPUTER HISTORY ASSOCIATION
OF CALIFORNIA, SHOWS OFF PART
OF THE COLLECTION, WHICH IS
STORED IN CARGO CONTAINERS IN
A SILICON VALLEY PARKING LOT.
 THE MICROGRAFX
CHILI FOR CHILDREN
COOK-OFF IS MISSING
ONE HOT NAME.

(hpl PACKARD ::~

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Companies listed above are 1996 Cattle Baron sponsors .
s 1i R E T R E D

Visualize Tufte
Short Attention ew teachers are as accomplished as Edward Tufte when it comes to
Span Theater F demonstrating why good design matters in the world. Tufte, a Yale
professor and the reigning guru of information design, has just pub-
he troubles holding up
T DVD - bickering among
the technology, entertainment,
lished Visual Explanations, the third installment of an acclaimed tril-
ogy. Like its predecessors, this latest book is a knockout.
and electronics industries over The philosophy is that clarity and excellence in the display of data
copyright, encryption, and almost inevitably leads to clarity and excellence in thinking. Tufte is
regional codes - have been big on show-and-tell: he presents dozens of illustrations from both the
more or less ironed out. The "do" and "don't" categories of information design, and then explains
first digital-versatile-disc in his straightforward and often witty voice why they succeed or fail.
players for TV hit the market Tufte tells of a mid-19th-century cholera outbreak in London, and
mid-March. On ly last year's how the medical investigator John Snow discovered the cause. By metic-
conflicts have led to a depress-
ulously mapping the location of each of the disease-related deaths in
ing dearth of film releases for
an affected neighborhood, Snow was able to determine that a single
the format.
Enter the Venice, California-
well on London's Broad Street was responsible for the epidemic. (Inci-
based Short cinemo journal. dentally, Snow's map also revealed a curious anomaly: residents near
DVD - with its high pixel res- the tainted well somehow avoided contracting cholera. Upon investiga-
olution, vivid detail, and mul- tion, he discovered these people worked at a brewery, which supplied
tiple channels - lends itself
to a magazine format, and
th is slick publication exclu- R.iUFiE
sively devoted to short-form
fXPLA.N
A.TIONS

DVD turns on.

ci nema fills a void.
The debut issue is hot, if
uneven. A droning monolog
by boorish director Michael The reigning guru of information design weighs in.
Apted, for example, is a mis- them with free malt liquor - thus they had little use for the well.)
guided choice. But then The most compelling example of bad information design involves the
journal redeems itself with infamous crash of Challenger. Surveying documents that the engineers
a marvelous animated seg- at Morton Thiokol and NASA used to analyze the launching of space
ment ca lled "The Big Story
shuttles in cold weather, Tufte demonstrates how data about the poten-
with Pencil Test." A handful of
tial for catastrophic O-ring damage should have been presented. The
shorts come in each issue.
For the past year, the 20-
results are startling. If the engineers had constructed a simple scatter-
some staff members of Short plot that showed how cold weather had corresponded with corroded
cinema journal have made O-rings, they almost certainly would have nixed Challengers launch.
the fi lm festival rounds search- Visual Explanations is packed with other such vivid examples: how
ing for original content. The tacky carpet patterns can make stairways treacherous, why the design
number and quality of works of the Surgeon General's warning on cigarette packages is deliberately
here reflects their effort. Th is tough to read, how graphical user interfaces can be built to maximize
short-attention-span journal the amount of information conveyed on each screen.
is a couch potato's dream.
Visual Explanations is for anyone who believes that information
- Rita Johnson
design is essential to solving real-world problems. "As for a picture;'
Short cinema journal: US$25.95 says artist Ad Reinhardt, quoted in Tufte's book, "if it isn't worth a thou-
monthly; on the Web at www sand words, the hell with it!' - Scott Kirsner
.shortcinema.coml.
Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative, by Edwa rd R. Tufte: US$45.
Graphics Press: (800) 822 2454.

85m WIRE D J ULY 1 99 7

 The Interface Hackers
mong the most popular Mac downloads on the Net are several apps
The Underbelly A and extensions written by Greg Landweber. You may not recognize
the name of this Harvard math grad student, bassoonist, and part-time
Flame Wars with Louis XIV
of a Business ouis XIV of France, known as the Sun King, sym-
emp Slave is a zine for any-
shareware developer. But you probably have heard of Aaron, the exten-
sion that subtly modifies the Mac interface to look like Apple's promised
L bolizes the zenith of monarchy. He centralized
T one who's ever washed
dishes until 3 a.m. or answered
System 8. And you might have come across BeView, which makes your
governing authority under his rule and turned his
court at Versailles into a spectacle of power, a stag-
Mac look like the forthcoming BeOS. geringly extravagant display intended to convince
phones for 10 hours straight.
Recently Landweber, with friends Ed Voas and Fred Bass, released · a cowed populace that he was divinely appointed to
Any disgruntled employee
Kaleidoscope, a souped-up version of Aaron that offers an array of color- rule over them, or, as he wrote in his diary in 1668,
will appreciate these true-life
ful interfaces such as Onyx and Ice. So far, most of the schemes are that "we are the head of the body of which they are
tales of terror from secre-
pretty tacky. Sherbet Classic, for example, turns the Close Window button the members." Nice work if you can get it.
taries, cashiers, and others in
Now, British artists Jason White and Richard Wright
the ever-growing temporary into a yucky little pink sphere. But unlike Aaron, Kaleidoscope opens
have produced Heliocentrum, an unusual short film
workforce. the door for developers to write their own interfaces. Some promising about Ie roi soleil. Made on desktop PCs, this is not
Editor and temp veteran third-party designs, such as Star Wars, are already popping up. the sort of documentary you might find on PBS, but
Keffo publishes a collection of Kaleidoscope doesn't add practical function to the Mac - it adds some- more a piece of history for the MTV generation.
stories written by pink-collar thing else that has been vastly underrated: a fun, in some cases beautiful, Using trippy computer graphics, blended with
employees who are ignored, improvement to the interface. The infant Mac gave us icons, pulldown news footage and clips from silent movies, the result
ridiculed, and abused by clue-
menus, windows, and mouse pointing. But Apple's fallen asleep at is both fun and an amazingly effective way of show-
less managers. Issue 10 tells
the wheel. Fortunately Landweber, Voas, and Bass are keeping alive ing how a sovereign manipulated power. Accompa-
of an office temp who breaks
the Apple tradition of ingenious design. nied by an electronic soundtrack that starts as a
her ankle on the way to work
synthetic minuet, then ramps up into thumping
and still carries out her duties ~------------------~--------~ techno, it's also the only history documentary I've
the rest of the day. An Amer-
ever seen that you could dance to in a nightclub.
ican in Paris laments the

Temporary rebellion. History you can dance to.

difficulties of holding down
Heliocentrum (meaning "sun-centered") opens on
a job in France, and a former
a shot of the Sun King's head, surrounded by swirling
writer for the infamous San Building a revolutionary new look for the Mac - and it's not from Apple. flames, towering over the French countryside. This
Francisco magazine The Nose If you are hungry for function, Greg's Browser offers a simple but sets the tone for a whistle-stop tour of Versailles,
gives a breakdown ofthe
innovative way to access the contents of your computer. Your monitor's whose baroque interiors come alive, filigree decora-
publication's demise due to
screen is divided into three or four panes to let you to run up and down tions twirling around in a complicated meshwork,
poor management.
file hierarchies quickly and logically while keeping several directories reminiscent (if you're a baroque groupie) of Leibniz's
Plenty of contributors rant
in view at once - you can find files fast without opening a lot of win- description of a clockwork universe. We get a peek
as if attending a meeting of
at the bored, bitchy court, and are treated to a few
Disgruntled Anonymous, but dows. You also can drag up to eight icons into slots at the top of the
choice thoughts from the Grand Monarch about how
others offer advice on how screen for instant access; I have my desktop, my local hard drive, and to hold onto power. Louis saw himself as an omni-
to regain self-esteem. One three local network servers up there. scient eye, imperiously seeing into the hearts and
decidedly unmodel but con- The best thing about this browser is that it allows you to dive into minds of his subjects. This thought is eerily updated
tented employee calls friends compressed Stuffit archives as though they were regular folders. You with the use of surveillance camera footage. As a
in other countries from the can unstuff any document as quickly as you can open an unstuffed file subject warns the king of civil unrest, we see the
office phone.
on your hard drive. London poll tax riots of 1990. With its peculiar blend
Try Temp Slave on your next
While Apple fusses with its next-generation as - Rhapsody is now of rave graphics and historical insight, Heliotentrum
coffee break for an empow-
promised in 1998 - Landweber lets us test-drive interfaces of the future reminds the viewer that the outlook of the Sun King
ering fix. - Bonnie 1. Burton
today. The Cupertino crowd, however, still knows a good thing when was not so different from that of today's presidents
Temp Slave: US$3. Keffo: and prime ministers. Plus fa change, plus fa reste la
it sees it. The company recently snatched up Ed Voas, codeveloper of
PO Box 8284, Madison, meme chose, as the French say. - Hari Kunzru
Aaron, to lead Apple's software design division. - Aaron Belz
Wisconsin 53708-8284.
Richard Wright: +44 (171) 320 1809, emai l sfp@dig-Igu
Aaron: US$10 per single user, $100 per site. BeView: $10 per si ngle user, $100 per site. Kaleido-
.demon.co.uk.
scope: $20 per single user, $200 per site. Greg's Browser: $20 per sing le user, $200 per site.
Greg's Shareware: on the Web at greg.math.harvard.edul.
 Death by Broderbund
t's 1914, and your friend Tyler has summoned you to join him on a Red Planet Looms Large
Putonghua for
Iplans
transcontinental train departing from Paris. Hitches in your reunion
e need a new frontier to reinvigorate civiliza-
Laowai
begin when you're late to the station and have to board by run-
ning alongside with a motorcycle and hopping on, unticketed. But then
W tion, says Robert Zubrin, and that frontier is
Mars. In his book The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle
ay headquarters has trans- your trouble worsens when you discover your friend has been murdered
S ferred you to Sha nghai, in his compartment. Think fast - somebody is a killer, and you've got
the Red Planet and Why We Must, Zubrin describes
how to put the first humans on the Red Planet within
or maybe you are traveling to precious few minutes before a snoopy clerk finds you alone with the a decade, using present-day technology. The cost?
Beijing. Or perhaps you're just body and you get 20-to-life. About US$20 billion, or 10 percent of NASA's budget
hot to hang out in the "new" The Last Express is an animated mystery game with several hooks. spread out over 20 years (developing hardware the
Hong Kong. If you need to first decade, flying missions the next). NASA has a
First, the story takes place aboard a classic Orient Express-style train,
learn a bit of putonghua long-range goal to send people to Mars someday, but
with no room to maneuver and many, many rooms in which a murderer
(Mandarin) in a hurry, you the agency has scheduled only a series of orbiters
need Power Chinese. Devel-
can hide. Not knowing what or who lies behind any door keeps you on
and robotic landers, the first of which should touch
oped by the same company teeth-grinding edge.
down on July 4, 1997.
that brought you Power Jap- Second, Broderbund eschews clinical polygons or cheesy full-motion Zubrin, at the request of House Speaker Newt Gin-
anese (see Wired 1.3, page 32), video in favor of hand-drawn period animation. The alternating first-, grich, has also worked out a proposal for a federally
this is the answer to a lan- secondo, and third-person points of view imbue scenes with a lifelike- financed $20 billion award payable to the first pri-
guage learner's prayers. ness both elegant and creepy. Passengers murmur conversations, watch- vate organization to put people on the Red Planet
Chinese is a difficult tonal ing you with unreadable expressions; conductors walk briskly up to and return them safely to Earth.
tongue: each character can He's no mere wild-eyed schemer, however: Zubrin
be pronounced four different desjgned interplanetary missions as a senior engi-
ways (seven in Cantonese). neer at Lockheed Martin and now is president of
If you're not carefu l you can Pioneer Astronautics of Indian Hills, Colorado, doing
wind up calling someone's
mother (ma) a horse (ma).
Accordingly, Power Chinese

New word order.

offers pronunciation dri lls as
wel l as exercises in grammar. Humans to Mars!
Sample sentences are dis-
space technology research for NASA. His book, with
played in Chinese characters
a foreword by Arthur C. Clarke, is written for a gen-
(hanzi) to force familiarity with
eral audience but doesn't skimp on the details about
the written language, but the
how to get to Mars, find water, grow food, and,
Pinyin romanized versions
you, sticking their faces right up to yours, only to say "Excuse me" and eventually, terraform the planet to create Earth-like
come up with a Shift-Click.
continue on their way. Through it all, you can hear the constant rattle conditions.
A Control-Click brings up the
and clank of the endless rails carrying you toward the end of the line - Indeed, a central point of The Case for Mars is that
character stroke order.
human settlers will live off the land, rather than bring
Cu ltural notes and practi- for the train and, perhaps, for you.
all their necessities from Earth. Before the pioneers
cal dialog come as part of the The final hook - and this is the killer - is that all interactions are real set foot on the Red Planet, a robotic spacecraft will
package. You won't necessarily time and simultaneous: while you're busy fretting over your next bril- have already arrived to produce fuel from indigenous
be striking megadollar deals liant move, more than 30 major characters are walking and talking resources for surface exploration and the return trip.
in Hong Kong as a result, but
around you with their own agendas. Failure to act can be just as damn- Zubrin details how to build habitats from Martian
you'll certainly understand
ing as doing something actively stupid. bricks and techniques to extract materials such as
what's going down a whole
lot better. - David Voss
The Last Express is a good game and a great piece of mood. Seemingly copper for electrical wiring and silicon for solar
random first-person angles, especially early on, can be a little disorient- power panels.
Power Ch inese CD-ROM for Humans to Mars in 10 years? My bags are packed.
ing, but overall the game has a cozy-yet-tense whodunit feel, and easily
Windows: US$ 159. Transpar- - Dave Cravotta
compressed animation means you get more gameplay, instead of three
ent Language Inc.: +1 (603)
465 2230, fax +1 (603) 465
compact discs' worth of crappy full-mo-video acting. The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We

2779, on the Web at www If you're a mystery fan, book a ticket aboard The Last Express - just Must, by Robert Zubrin: US$ 25. The Free Press: (800) 223 2348.
read all the newspapers, trust no one, and be sure to keep your com- "The Sign ificance of the Martian Frontier" and other papers by
.transparent. com/.
partment door locked. - Chris Hudak Robert Zubrin: on the Web at www.magick.net/mars/.

The Last Express for PC and Mac: US$39. Broderbund: +1 (415) 382 4700, on the Web at www
.Iastexpress.cam/.

WIRED JULY 19 97
 We~r your colors. Messenger Bag
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polo shirt with embroidered Logo T-shirt
Running time is approximately
Street Cred logo. (Choose Heavyweight, 100%
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(option for short sleeve, only).

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Postage and handling - US US$5 Orders must include payment. Produ ct s subject to
availability a nd may cha nge witho ut notice. Please
Postage - Canada US$7.50 allow 2-3 weeks for delivery. All checks must b e
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Postage - International US$20 responsible for any duties or taxes imposed by

Total
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countries oth er t han the US during t he delivery of
international ord ers.
 lIya Prigogine chal-
lenges Einstein and Newton in her
new book, The End of Certainty.
According to the author, quantum mechan-
ics works swimmingly in a deterministic
universe, where fixed rules govern nature.
So Low It's Insanel Great
But those laws of nature break down under E-commerce evangelists predict that minuscule charges for small-
time's chaotic influence, proving that the scale electronic transactions known as micropayments will open up
only sure thing, as Heisenberg observed,
is uncertainty. Release: August. The Free Press:
a host of new businesses, such as Java applet rentals, metered online
+ 1 (212) 632 4994. gaming, and per-article magazine subscriptions. Micropayment

i! Yoyodyne Entertainment
has developed a multiplayer chat-game
service providers, however, must first figure out how to minimize
overhead costs before they can offer true nanoscale commerce.
engine that scales to 250,000 users. In Digital Equipment Corp., the Maynard, Massachusetts, computing
Snowball Fight combatants cut deals and
giant, is readying release of the most promising microcommerce
form alliances, hoping to avoid the icy sting
of a wintertime projectile. Release: Summer. scheme to date. The key to the company's service, punnily called
Yoyodyne Entertainment: + 1 (914) 5919696. Millicent, is the use of third-party brokers. Here's the scenario: Shop-
. VDOLive is streaming pers buy scrip from certified brokers and trade the funny money
video that adjusts to avail- for products touted at Web sites. Online vendors, in turn, swap
able bandwidth. Version 3.0 will
scrip for cold cash with the same brokers. Shoppers need not create
reach the television standard of full-
screen video delivered at 30 frames separate accounts with many d Web sites, and vendors are
per second using 512 Kbps of band- freed from creating, main-
width. For a 28.8 modem, that trans-
lates to about 12 frames per second.
Release:July. VDOnet:+1 (415)8021850.

PhE!ofthe
new HighPoint
development in Romeoville, near Chicago, can now
enjoy the benefits of fiber-to-the-curb. Housing
units - and even local businesses - are connected
to a complexwide LAN. With throughput promised
in the 10 Mbps range, happy homemakers can order
pastrami sandwiches from the local deli on the
quick. Release: June. HighPoin t: + 1 (815) 293 3001 . transaction it supports, and Digital believes that using brokers will
help streamline its service. The company plans to allow for trans-
_ Kuala Lumpur's officials
J11USt!VedeCiied that proxy servers are actions of as little as one-tenth of a cent, with processing costs
passe - not to mention futile. The new expected to total one "millicent" for every penny spent.
censorship strategy: Singapore One, a
To win consumer trust and attract big-name Web sites, Digital
government-built and -managed intranet
- which promises fast service freed from must first negotiate trustworthy partnerships with respected banks
the Net's clogged pipes, and, not surpris- and credit card companies. If that happens, microtransactions have
ingly, plenty of whitewashed content
shackled by the country's perverse sense great potential.
of decency. Release: Summer. Singapore One: For one, publishers will discover intriguing new revenue models.
on the Web at www.s-one.gov.sgl.
Given a weekly business magazine's typical newsstand price, a one-
Blizzard Entertainment, dev- page article should cost about five cents, a feature article a quarter,
eloper the popular strategy games War- and a cartoon or photo about a penny. If sold on the Internet, col-
craft I and II, is readying the intergalactic
version. In Starcraft, three outer-space spe- umns and captions could reap a pretty penny - even collected one
cies vie for control of a faraway universe, cent at a time. - Jennifer Sullivan
and, as commander of the Terrans, the Pro-
toss, or the Zerg, you must forge civilization Release: Late summer. Digital: + 1 (508) 493 5111.
through interplanetary conquest.
Release: Summer. Blizzard:
+1 (310) 793-0600.

UsB WIRED JULY 1997

.." .."
 The Congos Jose Missamou Archer Prewitt Lenny White
Natty Dread Rise Again Montuno ya Congo In the Sun Renderers of Spirit
Ras Records Rythmo-Disc CarrotTop Hip Bop
Rise Again is a remarkably apt While traditional salsa strug- Archer Prewitt is the sworn Much music has flowed since
title, since The Congas have gles on its home turf - under traditionalist of the loose, the late '60s, when Lenny
Various Artists returned 20 years after the fire since the early '80s by sac- experimental Chicago scene. White drummed Chick Corea
The Alan Lomax Collection: Southern Journey Volumes 1-6 classic release Heart of the charine salsa romantica - its A core member ofThe Sea and Return to Forever into
Rounder Congas, produced by Lee Perry. spirit thrives further afield. and Cake and the defunct history. Now, as a prod ucer,

A lan Lomax began recording folk sounds with his

father in the 1930s for the Library of Congress
and remains one of the most important archivists in
These days, all that's left of
the band is lead singer Cedric
Myton, and as you might
Witness Japan's Orquesta de
la Luz, Ricardo Lemvo's spark-
ling Cuban /soukous fu sion,
Coctails, Prewitt solo eschews
the latter's musical frivolity for
the sober orchestrations of
White combines his areas of
expertise and presents his
own hard-d riving, exquisitely
US musical history. Among his discoveries while trav- expect, his vocal octane isn't or this disc. Missamou's croon Scott Walker and Nick Drake. prod uced albums. Typically,
eling the country's backwaters were guitar legend quite as high as it was. Yet is delightfully redolent of his Though his lyrics are occasion- Renderers defi es the odds of
Leadbelly, blues player Son House, and Hobart Smith, Myton can still hit his clear Congolese home, as are com- ally downcast ("I'm All You the smooth jazz airwaves by
a multi-instrumentalist virtuoso. These discs mark trademark falsetto, and the plex rhythms laid down by Know"), the title In the Sun not insulti ng one's intelligence
the first six releases in an ambitious collection of songs and arrangements on percussionist Anga Valdes. genera lly matches his clean, with formula performances.
more than 100 CDs of folk music gathered from this disc illustrate the con- But Luis Manresa is the star bright compositions. Some Drawing on a pool of players
around the world. scious roots reggae reviva l. here: his ebullient arrange- cuts parallel the implied equa- semi na l to the fu sion move-
Lomax collected material for Southern Journey in tempered with more than ments evoke Latin mu sic's tor-hopping ofThe Sea and ment at its bada ss best
the American South between 1958 and 1960, when a touch of sou l, a vi be that golden age without lapsin g Cake: "Work," for instance, (George Duke, Stanley Clarke,
a dazzling array of musical styles coexisted in the offers one love, and a lasting into imitation, and hisjazzy, jumps like juju. Transcending Bennie Maupin), Wh ite stokes
same backyard. Delta blues are exemplified by Mis- classic in "Rock of Gibraltar." playful piano proves that a style, recordin gs this good the fire under a number of
sissippi Fred McDowell, a guitarist who learned to Not a crucial disc, maybe, salsero ca n earn impecca ble have blessed Chicago with compelling R&B- and funk-
play slide with a steak bone: "61 Highway Blues" but definitely a timely one. chops far from the Caribbean a bumper crop of indie pop. based instrum entals and
is a gritty song in which McDowell demonstrates - Chris Nickson. or NYC. - Eamon Dolan - James SuI/ivan . voca ls. - James Rozzi.

lenny white

., ' !
; (!ll', ',I
'{,,~ · t·~ ' ' ' " "11.
'7.
-<".:of,. ~ ......

an old slide style of letting the guitar finish each The Black Widows Various Artists Sugar Plant Various Artists
lyrical line. Spirituals were abundant in the South: Death by Guitar Anokha - Soundz of the After After Hours Audio Alchemy: Experiments
"Tribulations," a song by Estil Ball based on the Vital Gesture Asian Underground World Domination in Beat Reconstruction
Book of Revelation, is performed with gentle guitars Take the most provocative Omni/Quango Suga r Plant's understated Ubiquity
and a lilting, sweet vocal harmony describing the parts of biker-chick movies, Anokha is the fruit ofTalvin sound is based on a rock con- San Francisco's Ubiquity label,
damnation awaiting the less than righteous. Chain- surf music, and spag hetti- Singh's commitment to create, struct that has been mutating a boutique-sized impri nt best
gang songs like "Tom Devil" - a story of frustration, Western scores, spin them expose, and fuse traditiona l for decades. While you might known for its rare funk and
dreams, and hope sung by Ed Lewis and prisoners together, and you'll have Indian and contemporary UK inhale th is stuff for a creamy, adventurous jazz albums,
at the Mississippi State Penitentiary - are moving approximated the melodicism cl ub styles. This is no En igma- dreamy buzz of soft female confronts a new area with this
not only because of their stark performance, but of LA's Black Widows. Guitarist esque cultural hijacking; rather, vocals and neo-'90s psyche- collection of pieces influenced
because they stir memories of a brutal penal age. Dr. Vibe spurns traditional the compilation conta ins a delia, the Japanese duo also most directly by the turntable's
Lomax's dedication preserved the music of a place nostalgia-fixated retro cate- whole new sound from Anglo- satisfies those craving a fla sh- cut-and-paste aesthetic. The
outside time. Forty years later, the influence of what gories, preferring instead to Asians brought up on hip hop back of '60s jingle-jangle. quiet mastery of "Layered
he saw is pervasive: the angst of prison songs can be describe his outfit as purvey- and house music. Drum and Cellular and synthetic, Sugar's Laird" from up-and-coming
heard in hip hop; McDowell echoes through Bonnie ors of "instrumental spider bass rhythms dominate the music is fraught with chasms prod ucer Cut Chemist bea uti-
Raitt and Ben Harper; the Pogues have covered "Jesse rock." That's right: there isn't materia l with manipul ated of sonic tension and shudder- fully demonstrates the DJ's
James"; Maya Angelou sings "Little Sally Walker" on even a hint of vocals on the sitars, speed freak tablas, and ing release. Shin'ichi Ogawa vibe throughout the whole
Sesame Street. This collection shows how vital musical 17-track Death by Guitar, but breathtaking vocals delicately and Ch inatsu Shoya ma also collection (using only records
history can be. - Peter L. Herb . you won't miss those lyrics for layered and interwoven. The tightrope nicely between tra- as source material), while
a second. Capture the Widows curator's own "Jaan," along ditional guitar syntax and man-meets-machi ne collabo-
live if you have the chance, with State of Bengal's "Chita- quasi-ambient improv. With rations such as Skyjuice with
because their pantomime gong Chill" and K-Ascendant's a mantra steeped in narcotic Terra Deva or Bugs bring life
cabaret, in all its arachnid-cos- "Kingsuk Biswas," highlight pop and lustrous drone, the and spirit to the album. This is
tumed glory, is outta this web. this potent collection. sweet weed is intoxicating. the new face of free-form jazz.
- Andrew Lentz . - Scott Taves . Take a puff. - Mitch Myers. - Tamara Palmer.

W I RED JULY 1997 D5liJ

 Hall of Ha lf -Baked Ideas
hilanthropy and genius come together full throttle in the touring
P exhibit Masterpieces from The Pierpont Morgan Library. Financier
J. P. Morgan established the New York landmark back in 1924, making
Economic Espionage
ome people just can't let go of the good old days
The Spirit of '76
o someone whose musical
his personal trophies "permanently available for the instruction and
pleasure of American people." As for the genius, everyone's there. S when We were the good guys and They were the

T tastes took root in the

disco decade, Interstate 76
Chaucer, da Vinci, Shakespeare, Newton, Einstein, Beethoven, Zola,
Eliot, Steinbeck - names cemented into history.
bad guys. In War by Other Means: Economic Espionage
in America, John Fialka writes an account of economic
espionage - They (Chinese, Japanese, Germans,
is a dream come true, an The distractions are overwhelming as you roam through the exhibit's French, et cetera) are treacherously stealing Our
adrenaline-pumped video- dimly lit rooms. I didn't even get to the architectural drawings or the (American) technology and jobs. That Chinese stu-
game with a funk soundtrack artwork after three visits to the show in San Francisco. But I did see dent down the hall is not some hard-working slob
straight out of Studio 54. the Gutenberg Bible - the library owns three of them. And how about trying to get ahead, but a tool of Beijing, exploiting
Interstate 76 takes place centuries-old texts from the Near East? Steinbeck's personal diaries? America's openness. Instead of a commie under
in an alternate-universe ver- The only surviving manuscript of Milton's Paradise Lost? A symphony every rock, this time it's an industrial spy.
sion of The Year of Our Bell- No doubt most of the stories in this admittedly
written by Mozart at the age of 5? You can scrutinize the handwriting
Bottoms, where a gang of riveting read are true. Corporations often go to unsa-
and revel in the irony that some of the great contemporaries are trapped
auto mercenaries are trying vory lengths to get hold of technology - even Ameri-
to destroy the largest oil
under the same displays together.
can companies, although arguably on a lesser scale.
reserve in the USand leave Creative endeavor is all over this show, and it's not without its para- In Fialka's view, the foreign devils aren't just compet-
the country at the mercy of doxes. While museums are generally bursting with fine-tuned master- ing, they're siphoning off jobs, Truth, Justice, and the
nefarious OPECbosses. You pieces, ready to face the world, there's a whiff of dirty laundry here. American Way. Trying to get an edge on overseas
play Groove Champion, a Ugly rough drafts. Theories half-baked. Privately scribbled notes of competitors is a national security issue, not just a
reluctant vigilante fi ghting anguish. Everything's in a wonderful visible state of transformation - commercial one.
the mercs. Accompanied by Hogwash! Every marketplace is inherently global
Taurus, an ace driver blessed these days, no matter how much cold warriors like
with a most massive Afro, you
battle in the sh ifting sands of

Groo-oooovy!
the Southwest, brandishing Th e machinery of 21 st-ce ntury business.
guns, mines, and missiles, and
Fialka want to think otherwise. Foreign corporations
executing spectacular leaps
Witness the transformation of genius. are just as unlikely to stay home as American ones.
over cliffs and ca nyons.
something of a diminishing return in our do-it-on-screen-now-and- Competing in a global marketplace means, well,
The wonderful graphics
don't-forget-to-clean-up-your-hard-drive times. There's barely a trace competing. Or cooperating. Nowhere does the book
move swiftly and smooth ly -
mention the possibility of investing in firms around
which they better, since this anymore of how we got from here to there. Imagine the museums of
the world, or setting up joint ventures where Their
game runs on ly on Pentium the 21st century, email printouts and immaculate drafts on display success is also Our success. Luckily, many business
PCs - and the ca r's controls instead of exquisite handwritten letters. Just a thought! leaders already have clued into this potential, so
feel like a dream. After you This exhibit turns art appreciation on its head. It's the treacherous it's difficult these days to identify companies like
battle your way through the
journey, not the arrival, that counts. The more revisions you see, the Unilever, Ford, News Corporation, or Sony with just
challeng ing (but never unfair)
more tangible the creative process becomes, and the more difficult it is one nation.
single-player story, there's a
to separate the artists from their work. You come across Oscar Wilde's The primary value of this book is educating exec-
multiplayer mode in which up
original draft of The Picture of Dorian Gray, for instance, and wonder utives in what it's like in the real world. It ain't
to eight players can bri ng out
if he had any sense of the vilification that would follow its publication. smart to dump trade secrets in the trash, or talk
da noise, bring out da rocket
"Poisonous but perfect" was Wilde's response to Victorian dogma. about sensitive subjects on a cell phone. Forget the
launchers over the Net.
xenophobic crap about revoking visas and erecting
Conjuring up state-of-the- The other great takeaway, apart from a spontaneous urge to take
tariff walls, however. Leave dumb ideas like these
art gameplay, Interstate 76 your head out of the business pages and back into the classics, is the where they belong - in the museum. - Jeff Mann
pays tribute to the spirit of chance to take a breather and reflect on the forces behind other great
two eras. - lach Meston eras. As we race full tilt into the next millennium, it's good to remember War by Other Means: Economic Espionage in America, by John
J. Fialka: US$25. W. W. Norton & Com pany: + 1 (2 12) 354 5500,
Interstate 76: US$49.95. that the future's just an upgrade of the past running on a faster chip.
on the Web at web.wwnorton.coml.
Activision: + 1 (3 10) 473 - Jackie Bennion
9200, on the Web at www
Masterpieces from The Pierpont Morgan Library: at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta July 1 through
.activision.coml.
September 28, on the Web at www.jpmorgan.comICorplnfoIPerspectivesIPMUMasterpieces.html.
The Collection of The Pierpont Morgan Library cata log: US$29.95. The Pierpont Morgan Libra ry:
+ 1 (2 12) 685 0610.

W I RED JULY 1 9 97 06[!]

Straight up,
with a Twist PAUL KRUGMAN, an economist at MIT, is a prolific author. Browse his
column "The Dismal Scientist" on Slate (www.slate.com/).
W ith this three-axis joy-
stick, James Bond could
readily dominate an endless
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond.
"This book covers the origins of civilization, why some societies over-
variety of aircraft and vehicles. whelmed others, and the influence of the environment on culture. Like
Here's a controller with a twist another old favorite of mine - Plagues and Peoples - it says 'History is
that puts it deep into first for not what you thought it was about: There are deeper forces at work,
the flight-sim sophisticate: real such as disease. Why did one culture predominate over another? Often,
objects have three degrees
the successful people simply harbored more deadly germs. Diamond
of rotational freedom, and for
also gives a strong sense of the impact of environment on culture.
the first time in popular-priced
There is a fascinating discussion of how the Polynesians diverged cul-
computerdom, so does a joy-
stick.
turally as they spread across the Pacific, depending on what kind of
The plurality of buttons that environment they landed in."
freckle the base and shaft are The Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers. "A really silly fantasy/science fiction
commonplace. Game design- novel. The plot includes Victorian poets and ancient Egyptians, all
ers expect that you can glance scrambled together. I have to read two silly books for every serious
around while maneuvering book or else I get overwhelmed."
a ship at light speed through
the guts of a gargantuan PETER G. NEUMANN, author of Computer-Related Risks, moderates the
space monster. There are but- Risks Forum (comp.risks). (See 'The Dean of Disaster," Wired 1.6, page 42.)
tons for every joint on your The Shipping News, by Annie Proulx. "I found many empathic connec-
hand to operate (with learning
tions: I'm a single parent; I enjoy living near water; I struggle with jour-
curves as steep as an F-18's
nalism and its deadlines, as does the agonized protagonist. Proulx's
climb on afterburners). But
writing is beautiful, even when larded with 'Newfie-speak.'"
the Sidewinder 3D Pro has a

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book about a year in NPR commentator Adams's life. I was particularly page layouts, images and illustrations-on a
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that keeps you from gaining KIM POLESE, the Java goddess who left Sun Microsystems to found poster or a 40 foot display.

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Return ofthe Set-Top Box Neverwhere
Call it Web TV, DigitalTV, or Entertainment PC '98 - it still so unds like You Want to Be
the set-top box hype we heard in '94, and it's going to fail for the same
reasons . "Enhancing " TV always seems like a mighty stra ightforward
proposition, but in practice it's abo ut as easy as cleaning up landfill.
R ichard Mayhew is Mister
Average, living in London,
worki ng in a dull office job,
That's why when Bill Gates demonstrates his vision of the PCfTV of the engaged to bossy Jessica.
future, the best he can come up with is an electronic program guide Then one evening he finds an
that allows you to search for Star Trek. Maybe that will actually be use- unconscious girl on the side-
ful once we get those 500 channels also promised back in '94. wa lk and is dragged into the
fantastical underside of Lon-
Corporate Fellows don. This is a parallel cityexist-
ing "in the cracks," a mythical
It sounds like something out of the 1940s, but the idea of "corporate
place with its own associative
fellows" is hot this year. For proof, just look at all the new Disney Fel-
fairy-ta le log ic - Neverwhere.
lows, including Danny Hillis and Alan Kay. Even tiny Seybold has hired
Neverwhere is the second
developer gadfly Dave Winer as a Fellow. While they are b right people, novel by Neil Gaiman, known
it's not at all clear how much benefit these fellows really provide: like to millions as the cult-hero
trophy wives, corporate fellows are primarily used for show. As IBM creator of the comic strip
fellow Ted Selker once po inted out, "People end up losing their careers Sandman. Like Sandman,
once they become a fe ll ow. They get forced onto every company SrlJor- Neverwhere is darkly wh imsi-
gasbord committee." ca l, the sort of novel Terry
Pratchett might produce if
This Month's Hype Position Expected he spent a month locked in
Overhyped Memes Level Last Month Lifetime a cellar with Franz Kafka.
-'----
Return ofthe Set-Top Box G~ ~ 4 months Without pictures, Gaiman's
Corporate Fellows ~ o 12 months prose can wea r th in, and the
Multifunction Smartcards o o 6 months cha racters (with a few excep-

Java Platform 40 6 months

Groupware 40- ~ 3 months
~ ----~
0=Em bryonic meme ~= Meme on t he rise Jj= Mass-media meme ~= About to die from overexposure

Multifunction Smartcards
Seems every computer conference these days includ es a session about
the messian ic coming of sma rtcards. Maybe that's no surprise: the
thought of a disposable computer in eve ry pocket is enough to make Gaiman's tunnel vision.
the most sober-headed hardware vendor drool. Now even the software tions, notably the cringe-
guys want in, w ith multifunction smartcards that banks can customize worthy badd ies Croup and
to offer coupons and the like. Pe rhaps. But if there's on e thing you Vandemar) could have wa n-
don't want near your cash, it's th ird-party software. dered in from any fantasy
novel. That said, the narrative
Java Platform whips along at a breakneck
When a history of Java is written, the March '97 JavaOne conference pace, and Neverwhere's fail-
ings are overshadowed by the
will be remembered as when the hype peaked. Contrary to simplified
lush evocation of its main
press reports, the real battle for the hearts and minds of developers
character - the city itself. Here,
has never been between Sun's Java and Microsoft's ActiveX. It's been
time collapses into a strange
between those who see Java as a platform - a white knight to unseat
fuzzy simultaneity, where lost
Windows - and those who see it as just a programming tool, albeit a Roman sold iers, feudal nobil-
very good one. But trying to make Java a platform takes us a step back- ity, evil-smelling sewer dwel-
ward: what we end up with is somet hi ng that looks a lot like Unix. lers, and talking rats coexist.
If you've spent time in Lon-
Groupware don, there are plenty of laughs
The old joke that groupware should be known as "gropeware" - because as geography takes on a
we have no idea how to make it work - still rings true. Underneath mythical dimension and the
Microsoft's and Netscape's hype about this next Net revolution is the Underground transforms into
inescapable fact that most attempts to implement group calendars a house of mystery and imagi-
nation. You'll never look at
and collaborative work ing environments have flopped. Even email is
the Tube the sa me way again.
used as a CYA strategy: CC everyone to make it look like you're work-
- Har; Kunzru
ing. You can throw all the software smarts you want at the problem,
but you're still not going to make people want to work together. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman:
US$ 24. Avon Books: +1 (212)
- Steve G. Steinberg ([email protected])
261 6883.
 Anthro Carts!
Street Cred Contributors
Aaron Belz ([email protected]) is an interface designer at Schwa
Dig ital Desig n (www.schwa.com/). a company he cofou nded in 1996.
In his other life, he's a poet and book reviewer for Publishers Weekly.

Bonnie Burton is a Grrl (www.grrl.coml) who wishes she was the

love child of pinup model Bettie Page and design guru Roger Black.

Dave Cravotta ([email protected]) writes stories about science

and other subjects. He is based in Orange County, California.

Eamon Dolan ([email protected]) edits books in New

York and San Francisco.

Peter L. Herb ([email protected]) is an attorney in New York City who

writes and plays guitar when his kids are asleep.

Rita M. Johnson ([email protected]) is a Missouri native

presently resid ing in Los Angeles. Her writin g has appeared in LA
Weekly, Sky, Dazed & Confused, and Request.

Scott Kirsner is often referred to as the Marcel Proust of the two-li ne

bio. He lives, writes, and devours madeleines in Boston's North End.

Hari Kunzru ([email protected]) is probably wa nderi ng around

London's Soho looking for new bra nds of bottled beer. If yo u see
him, remind him he has to work tomorrow.

Andrew Lentz is a freelance writer who just moved from Los Angeles
to Sa n Francisco. Whew.

Jeffrey Mann ([email protected]) lives in The Netherla nds and France,

works for the META Gro up of Stamford, Con necticut, and spends AnthroCarts are so flexible.
most of his ti me in airports.
You have dozens of
Zach Meston ([email protected]) recently moved from his lifelong
home of Hawai i to Southern California. He still plays videogames fo r
shapes and sizes to ."~='---~
a living, which makes people insa nely jea lou s, but no longer physi- choose, plus over 50 accessories
cally ill.
to configure your cart exactly the way you want.
Mitch Myers ([email protected]) is a psychologist and a freelance
writer. He lives in Ch icago and Manhattan and spends a lot of time
on the phone. And they have a Lifetime Warranty! Made
Chris Nickson ([email protected]) was born in England and now of steel and high density particle board, these
lives in Seattle. Please have pity on him.
AnthroCarts are as tough as nails.
Tamara Palmer ([email protected]) is an aspiri ng turntablist
cu rrently stuck in Los An geles. See them all in our catalog, then call
Jef Raskin ([email protected]), best kn own fo r creating the Mac-
intosh project at Apple, now consults on and designs post-GUI inter-
us direct to order. We'll ship to
faces. Whatever that mea ns. you the very n ext business day!
James Rozzi ([email protected]) has moved north
to the home ofTurner Field, where he hopes to someday play the
nationa l anthem on his saxophone.
Call for your
Steve G. Steinberg (s [email protected]) is a technology consu ltant
and contributing editor at Wired.
free catalog:
James Sullivan ([email protected]) is a reg ular contributor to a
whole bunch of pop cu lture periodica ls.
800-325-3841
6.00 AM to 6.00 PM PST, M - F
Scott Taves ([email protected]) is the US ma nager of B+W
music and The Blue Room record labels and author of A Pocket Tour Anthro Corporation®
of Gomes on the Internet.

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PC Computing names HotBot
the #1 search engine on the Web.
PC Computing just crowned HotBot the winner of its Search Engine
Shootout. They didn't poll the pundits - they let the engines fight for
the title at the NetWorld conference in Las Vegas. Over two days,
HotBot; Excite'; AltaVista: and Infoseekesearched. For current financial
data. For the number of floors in the Sears tower. For the GNP
of Jordan. For the kind of answers you can't fake.

You Hot Bot not only won - retrieving faster, fresher, more accurate
may now results than the competition - it performed more than twice as well as.
unbookmark AltaVista, three times better than Infoseek.
AltaVista
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the most comprehensive search engine in existence. And with up to 10
million documents updated every day and the Web indexed every two
weeks, HotBot is the ultimate information resource - everything,
everywhere, as it exists right now. Not ancient history.

Try HotBot for yourself.

The mI 111 EmSearch Engine.

www.hotbot.com
 Edited by Kristine Kern
net surf

Advertising's Other Face

About-Face (www.about-face.orgl),dedicated to combatting negative and distorted
images of women in advertising and media, grasps the Net's contrarian nature and
reminds us that political activism is keeping up with technology. The nonprofit group's
online presence reflects the after-hours efforts of group founder Kathy Bruin.
Whether shilling clothes, cosmetics, perfume, or diet soda, women's ads often por-
tray their subjects as undernourished zombies, victimized junkies, or underage sluts.
Publications are not immune to this trend: The New York Times Magazine featured one
skeletal trendsetter in a recent couture feature titled "Ethereal Girl." About-Face gives
you the tools to confront this reality by offering various activist strategies, from orga-
nizing boycotts and writing letters to educating yourself and others about the ads'
underlying messages.
Step into the"Galiery of Offenders" - a lion's den of advertising atrocities: the Gaso-
line jeanswear ad features a model groveling on a garage floor, clad in panties and
denim shirt, legs splayed, pleading with her mechanic for ••• some pants? Guess again!
Or don't: Guess? girls vamp black-eye makeup and a just-been-battered coif. Versace
poses its frail subjects falling down stairs. If the gallery gets you simmering, you can
IIfllmm~~ztt!llmm use the expansive list of contact information and sample letters to voice - to OKNY,
1.1 say, or Request - your opinions of such misogynistic marketing.
A number of other sympathetic sites offer similar, often funny, takes on women's
ads: a click to RiotGrrl delivers you to its "Feed the Super Model" animation page
(www.riotgrrl.com!feed.htm).ltoffersa daily waif - fresh from the pages of Wor Sports
Illustrated's swimsuit issue - to tempt with pasta, burgers, or dessert. Before your eyes,
each model morphs into a healthy, happy, normal-looking woman. Media Watch
(www.feminist.orglnewslmedwat.html).a California nonprofit founded by activist
Ann Simonton, former top model and central foe of the Miss America pageant, links
you to a bevy of like-minded pages. The Media Foundation, a Canadian group that publishes Adbusters magazine, fea-
tures a few"subvertisements" of its own on the magazine's online site (www.adbusters
.orgl). Check out the gallery of Calvin Klein Obsession spoofs: one mimics the perfume
campaign's sexy, soft-focus shot of a woman's back, but reveals her dry-heaving into a
toilet; another finds a hunky CK male model obsessed with what's lurking in his BVOs.
While About-Face and its ilk seek to change American advertising, they also give
props to a number of companies that are doing it right. Among these is Timberland,
whose "Storm Brewing" ad (www.about-face.orglhighlight.html) portrays the kind of
image advocates have been demanding all along - a strong, powerful woman, beauti-
ful in her ordinariness, and evidently not swayed by destructive, diminutive advertis-
ing trends."She's not a model; she's a model person," reads the copy. This example
marks a positive step for an industry that, were it not for offline and online activism,
might actually think the masses believe in it. - Colin Berry ([email protected])

WIRED JULY 1997

Break out of t he Box
Chuck your TV Guide and tune into this digital "network" - it'll keep
you glued to your set. Post Tv takes the entertainment programming
ethos to the next level of addictive, interactive terrain. Gorgeous and
sound-soaked - it's a collaborative effort of Post Tool Design and
Gravi-Tech Music - the site offers a playful variety: news, game "shows,"
the businessperson's guide to "How to Drink Like a Millionaire,"
a stand-up comedy routine delivered by an Internet-savvy alien,
and seductive bedtime stories read by their female authors. Don't
miss Joey Valley, the piano-playing lounge singer who has dubbed
himself"King of the Web."That's a title this broadcast-bashing site is
destined to maintain. www.posttool.com/

Kablam! Splat!
Take That!
Feel like throwing a brick at the click on her face and smack away
television every time you see a la Whack-A-Mole. For each hit,
those annoying Spice Girls?The you earn one point and an audi-
Brit-brat version of New Kids on Urban 75, a London-based zine ble "ouch!" Rack up 10 points for
the Block has conquered the UK whose motto is"Anger is an energy," hitting Marga ret Thatcher ("the
with its brand of mindless sugar has found a way to counterattack original Spice Girl," according to
pop and has already wreaked the invasion of the Girls."Slap a Urban75), who surfaces occasion-
havoc on the rest of the world. Spice Girl" allows anyone with Inter- ally. Satisfying.
www.head-space.com/Urban7S/spicebelt.html net access to take revenge. When
a Girl's face pops up onscreen,

Asiaphile
A hip guide to most things Asian, Channel A offers the modern gener-
ation's perspective on traditional food, art, and health practices of
East Asia. Take the tea quiz ("Where did Orange Pekoe get its name?")
or post your thoughts to a New Talk topic of the week like "Sex and
Violence in Japanese Animation." More sophisticated types can
browse for hot investment tips in the business section or, by scan-
ning the Community page, investigate the fight for Asian Studies
programs on college campuses. Channel A lets you major in this
department - without the tuition.

Girl Talk
Web-based fears of insecure credit coming soon), and, of course, dish .
card transactions seem minor when The mistress of this house of wig-
compared with the specter of cross- wearing Web psychics is the perky
dressed clairvoyants you meet at ment of psychic drag queen cyber- Tara Limbaugh - "Rush's feminist berg, and William S. Burroughs in
Internet Alfredo.They know what casts, a coterie of"girls"try out the daughter" - who started the project his first Net appearance. Old Bill
you're thinking - in real time, on latest Web technologies -live audio off with a 24-hour live event com- taught the girls the history of
the Internet. In a monthly install- chats, CU-SeeMe, et cetera - as they plete with more than 50 mind- transvestite shamanism, and they
engage in seductive acts of spiri- reading drag queens, Allen Gins- returned the favor with incisive
tual purification, fortune-telling, fashion advice. Imagine what they
fetishism (psychic panties are can tell you. www.ina.com/

WIRED JULY 1997 D&m

Doc Talk
Fans of the smart-alecky Ask Dr. Science radio
show can now savor the sweet aroma of sar-
casm online. Here, the good doctor tackles chal-
lenging queries with a scientist's best weapons:
obfuscation and wiseass remarks. No paradox
is too complex to be ridiculed, no theory too
bold to be mocked. He is the ultimate know-it-
all who, in fact, may know nothing. And yet we
can't help but hang on his every word. After all,
he's got a master's degree ... in science!

www.drscience.com/
Fantasy Threads
from Down Under
Old Celtic folk tales used the phrase "going
under the hill" to refer to entering a super- Australia-based creators, Andrew Pam and
natural spirit world just a dewdrop (or dream) Yankee transplant Katherine Phelps. Their
away. Glass Wings presents a whimsical yet spirited idealism is a distillation of the best
thoughtful passage to a land of fairy tales, of '60s flower power filtered through present-
gentle feminist-flavored erotica and science day Down Under counterculture. And they're
fiction. These text-intensive categories sug- smart enough to offer a powerful travel story
gest something of the sensibility of the site's about a recent visit to a World War II concen-
tration camp as a counterpoint to airy tales
of sweetness and light.
www.glasswings.com.au/

Sucker Punching the Man

While many other Web sites grovel for approval,
the good folks at annoy.com are lookin'to piss
you off. They've assembled a hilarious, bile-
drenched cache of intellectual weapons you
can aim at everyone from Jesse Helms to the
ACLU. A basic suite of Internet tools has been
juiced up with plenty offingernails-on-the-
cultural -chalkboard content: swastikas, porn,
www.annoy.com/
racial epithets, and good 01' dirty words. While motivate First Amendment huggers. ("Avoid
mauling the CDA crowd's delicate sensibilities the brain flab that comes with complacency.")
is always a lark, annoy.com's real objective is to Whether this site's strategy is right or wrong,
things should heat up now that the Feds are
involved. This test case against the CDA's pro-
Random ASC I Art 0' t e I\i t vision criminalizing communication with the
Reason #173 to fear technology ••. "intent to annoy" may very well prove that the
best defense is a good offense.
o o o o o
"1\ l'l Ilv
1\ /<

0,> o
\ '>
/< Thanks to the
Q <0>
Wired 5.07 Surf Team
v I Glen Helfand [email protected]
>\ >\
Clare Kleinedler [email protected]
o -, o Colin Lingle [email protected]
<I> <I> ~ > <» 1\ Norman Weinstein [email protected]
>\ /< >\ » L
Mr. ASCII does the Macarena.
U60
 the status quo - these attributes, however, the economy operates. And when the econ-
The Long Boom are shunned in many countries through- omy changes, it doesn't take long for the
... 129 cities and diffuse countrysides. out the Middle East. Many actually get rest of society to adapt to the new realities .
This all bodes well for the world econo- more traditional in response to the furious The classic example is the transformation
my. Through most of the 1970s, all the pace of change. The other factor driving of agricultural society into industrial soci-
1980s, and the early 1990s, the real growth the crisis is outside their control. The ety. A new tool - the motor - led to a new
rate in the world's gross domestic product advent of hydrogen power clearly under- economic model - capitalism - that brought
averages 3 percent. By 1996, the rate tops mines the centrality of oil in the world great social upheaval - urbanization and
a robust 4 percent. By 2005, it hits an economy. By 2008, with the auto industry the creation of an affluent class - and ulti-
astounding 6 percent. Continued growth in a mad dash to convert, the bottom falls mately profound political change - liberal
at this rate will double the size of the out of the oil market. The Middle Eastern democracy. While that's a crude summa-
world economy in just 12 years, doubling crisis comes to a head. Some of the old tion of a complex historical transition, the
it twice in just 25 years. This level of growth monarchies and religious regimes begin same dynamic largely holds true in our
surpasses the rates of the last global eco- to topple. shift to a networked economy based on
nomic boom, the years following World An even more disturbing crisis hits Africa. digital technologies.
War II, which averaged 4.9 percent from While some parts of the continent, such as There's also a commonsense explana-
1950 to 1973. And this growth comes off greater South Africa, are doing fine, central tion. When an economy booms, money
a much broader economic base, making Africa devolves into a swirl of brutal eth- courses through society, people get rich
it more remarkable still. Unlike the last nic conflict, desperate poverty, widespread quick, and almost everybody sees an
time, almost every region of the planet, famine and disease. In 2015 the introduc- opportunity to improve their station in
even in the undeveloped world, partici- tion of biological weapons in an ethnic life. Optimism abounds. Think back to
pates in the bonanza. conflict, combined with the outbreak of that period following World War II. A
Latin America takes off. These coun- a terrifying new natural disease, brings booming economy buoyed a bold, opti-
tries, after experiencing the nightmare of the death count to unimagined levels: an mistic view of the world: we can put a
man on the Moon, we can build a Great
Society, a racially integrated world. In
By 200S, the world economic growth rate hits our era, we can expect the same.
By about 2000, the United States econ-
an astounding 6 percent - a rate that will double omy is doing so well that the tax coffers
the size of the world economy in just 12 years. begin to swell. This not only solves the defi-
cit problem but gives the government ample
resources to embark on new initiatives.
debt in the 1980s, do much to vigorously estimated 5 million people die in the No longer forced to nitpick over which gov-
restructure their economies in the 1990s. space of six months - this on top of a ernment programs to cut, political leaders
Chile and Argentina are particularly inno- cumulative death toll of roughly 100 mil- emerge with new initiatives to help solve
vative, and Brazil builds on an extensive lion who perished prematurely over the seemingly intractable social problems, like
indigenous high tech sector. But the real previous two decades. drug addiction. No one talks about revert-
boost from 2000 onward comes from capi- The contrast between such destitution ing to big government, but there's plenty
talizing on Latin America's strategic loca- and the spreading prosperity elsewhere of room for innovative approaches to
tion on the booming Pacific Rim and on finally prods the planet into collective applying the pooled resources of the entire
its proximity to the United States. The action. Every nation, the world comes to society to benefit the public at large. And
region becomes increasingly drawn into understand, ultimately can only benefit the government, in good conscience, can
the booming US economy. In 1994, the from a thriving Africa, which will occupy finally afford tax cuts.
North American Free Trade Agreement economic niches that other nations are A spirit of generosity returns. The vast
formally links the United States to Mexico outgrowing. It makes as much practical as majority of Americans who see their pros-
and Canada. By about 2002, an All Amer- humanitarian sense. The regeneration of pects rising with the expanding economy
ican Free Trade Agreement is signed - Africa becomes a prime global agenda are genuinely sympathetic to the plight of
integrating the entire hemisphere into one item for the next quarter of the century. those left behind. This kinder, gentler
unified market. humanitarian urge is bolstered by a cold,
The Middle East, meanwhile, enters
crisis. Two main factors drive the region's
FUTURE hard fact. The bigger the network, the
better. The more people in the network,
problems. One, the fundamentalist Mus- AFT ER- Riding the wave of the boom- the better for everyone. Wiring half a town
lim mind-set is particularly unsuited to SHOCKS ing economy brings other major is only marginally useful. If the entire
the fluid demands of the digital age. The social and political repercussions. Funda- town has phones, then the system really
new economy rewards experimentation, mental shifts in technology and the means sings. Every person, every business, every
constant innovation, and challenging of production inevitably change the way organization directly benefits from a sys-

W I RED JULY 1997 06111

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tem in which you can pick up a phone Immigrants also benefit from the boom-
and reach every individual rather than ing economy. Attempts to stem immigra-
just a scattered few. That same principle tion in the lean times of the early 1990s
true holds for the new networked com- are largely foiled. By the late 1990s,
puter technologies. It pays to get everyone immigrants are seen as valuable contrib-
tied into the new information grid. By utors who keep the economy humming -
2000, this mentality sinks in. Almost more able hands and brains. By the first
everyone understands we're deep into a decade of the century, government policy
transition to a networked economy, a net- actively encourages immigration of
worked society. It makes sense to get knowledge workers - particularly in the
everyone on board. software industry, which suffers from
The welfare reform initiative of 1996 severe labor shortages. This influx of
begins the process of drawing the poor immigrants, coupled with Americans'
into the economy at large. At the time, changing attitudes toward them, brings
political leaders aren't talking about the a pleasant surprise: the revival of the
network effect so much as eliminating a family. The centrality of the family in
wasteful government program. Neverthe- Asian and Latino cultures, which form
less, the shakeup of the welfare system the bulk of these immigrants, is unques-
coincides with the revving of the economy. tioned. As these subcultures increasingly
Vast numbers of welfare recipients do get flow into the American mainstream, a
jobs, and the great majority eventually subtle shift takes place in the general
move up to more skilled professions. By belief in the importance of family. It's not
2002, the end of the initial five-year tran- family in the nuclear-family sense but a
sitional period, welfare rolls are cut by more sprawling, amorphous, networked
more than half. Former welfare recipients sense of family to fit the new times.
are not the only ones benefiting from the
new economy. The working poor hovering
just above the poverty line also leverage
THE
their way up to more stable lives. BRAAVINE Edu~ati?n ~s the next industrial-
Even those from the hardened criminal W era mstItutIOn to go through a
underworld migrate toward the expand- complete overhaul - starting in earnest
ing supply of legitimate work. Over time, in 2000. The driving force here is not so YOU'VE GOT BETTER THINGS TO DO
through the first decade of the century, much concern with enlightening young WITH YOUR OTHER HANDI
this begins to have subtle secondary minds as economics. In an information
effects. The underclass, once thought to age, the age of the knowledge worker,
be a permanent fixture of American soci- nothing matters as much as that worker'S
ety, begins to break up. Social mobility brain. By the end of the 1990s, it becomes
goes up, crime rates go down. Though clear that the existing public K-12 school
hard to draw direct linkages, many attri- system is simply not up to the task of
bute the drop in crime to the rise in preparing those brains. For decades the
available work. Others point to a shift in old system has ossified and been gutted
drug policy. Starting with the passage of by caps on property taxes. Various reform
the California Medical Marijuana Initia- efforts gather steam only to peter out.
tive n 1996, various states begin experi- First George Bush then Bill Clinton try to
menting with decriminalizing drug use. grab the mantle of "education president"
Alongside that, the failed war on drugs - both fail. That changes in the ;2000 elec-
gets dismantled. Both initiatives are part tion, when reinventing education becomes
of a general shift away from stiff law a central campaign issue. A strong school
enforcement and toward more complex system is understood to be as as vital to
ways to deal with the roots of crime. One the national interest as the military once
effect is to destroy the conditions that led was. The resulting popular mandate shifts
to the rise of the inner-city drug econo- some of the billions once earmarked for
my. By the second decade of the century, defense toward revitalizing education.
the glorified gangsta is as much a part The renaissance of education in the
of history as the original gangsters in early part of the century comes not from
the days of Prohibition. a task force of luminaries setting 170 ~

D6Iil
 Gutenberg completes its task of putting integrated society in place, Americans
The Long Boom 10,000 books online. Many of the world's need to learn how to accept social inte-
... 169 national standards in Washington,
leading universities begin carving off gration on a deeper level. The underpin-
DC - the solutions flow from the hun- areas of expertise and assuming responsi- nings of a booming economy make efforts
dreds of thousands of people throwing bility for the digitalization of all the liter- to ease the tensions among various ethnic
themselves at the problems across the ature in that field. Around 2010, all new and interest groups much easier than
country. The 1980s and 1990s see the books come out in electronic form. By before: people are more tolerant of others
emergence of small, innovative private 2015, relatively complete virtual libraries when their own livelihoods are not threat-
schools that proliferate in urban areas are up and running. ened. But people also come around to
where the public schools are most Despite earlier rhetoric, the key factor seeing diversity as a way to spark a cre-
abysmal. Many focus on specific learning in making education work comes not ative edge. They realize that part of the
philosophies and experiment with new from new technology, but from enshrin- key for success in the future is to remain
teaching techniques - including the use ing the value of learning. A dramatic open to differences, to stay exposed to
of new computer technologies. Begin- reduction in the number of unskilled jobs alternative ways of thinking. And they
ning around 2001, the widespread use of makes clear that good education is a mat- recognize the rationality of building a
vouchers triggers a rapid expansion in ter of survival. Indeed, nearly every orga- society that draws on the strengths and
these types of schools and spurs an entre- nization in society puts learning at the creativity of all people.
preneurial market for education reminis- core of its strategy for adapting to a fast- Women spearhead many of the changes
cent of the can-do ethos of Silicon Valley. changing world. So begins the virtuous that help make the multicultural society
Many of the brightest young minds com- circle of the learning society. The boom- work. As half the population, they are an
ing out of college are drawn to the wide- ing economy provides the resources to exceptional "minority" that helps pave the
open possibilities in the field - starting overhaul education. The products of that way for the racial and ethnic minorities
new schools, creating new curricula, revamped educational system enter the with fewer numbers. In the last global
devising new teaching methods. They're economy and improve its productivity. boom of the 1960s, the women's move-
ment gained traction and helped promote
the rise in the status of women. Through
By 2020, the great cross-fertilization of ideas, the 1970s and 1980s, women push against
traditional barriers and work their way
the never-ending planetary conversation, has begun. into business and government. By the
1990s, women have permeated the entire
fabric of the economy and society. The
inspired by the idea that they're building Eventually, education both sows and needs, desires, and values of women
the 21st-century paradigm for learning. reaps the benefits of the long boom. increasingly begin to drive the political
The excitement spreads far beyond pri- In the first decade of the century, Wash- and business worlds - largely for the bet-
vate schools, which by 2010 are teaching ington finally begins to really reinvent ter. By the early part of the century, it
about a quarter of all students. Public government. It's much the same process becomes clear that the very skills most
schools reluctantly face up to the new as the reengineering of corporations in needed to make the networked society
competitive environment and begin rein- the 1990s. The hierarchical bureaucracies really hum are those that women have
venting themselves. In fact, private and of the 20th century are flattened and net- long practiced. Long before it became
public schools maintain a symbiotic rela- worked through the widespread adoption fashionable , women were developing the
tionship, with private schools doing much of new technologies. Some, like the IRS, subtle abilities of maintaining networks,
of the initial innovating, and public schools experience spectacular failures, but even- of remaining inclusive, of negotiating.
concentrating on making sure the new tually make the transition. In a more These skills prove to be crucial to solving
educational models reach all children in important sense, the entire approach to the very different challenges of this new
society. government is fundamentally reconsid- world.
Higher education, though slightly less ered. The welfare and education systems The effort to build a truly inclusive soci-
in need of an overhaul, catches the spirit are the first down that path. Driven by the ety does not just impact Americans. At the
of radical reform - again driven largely imminent arrival of the first of many turn of the century, the United States is
by economics. The cost of four-year col- retiring baby boomers in 2011, Medicare the closest thing the world has to a work-
leges and universities becomes absurd - and Social Security are next. Other gov- able multicultural society. Almost all the
in part because antiquated teaching ernmental sectors soon follow. cultures of the world have some represen-
methods based on lectures are so labor The second decade of the century marks tation, several in significant proportions.
intensive. The vigorous adoption of net- a more ambitious but amorphous project: As the century moves on, it becomes clear
working technologies benefits under- making a multicultural society really work. to most people on the planet that all cul-
graduate and graduate students even Though the United States has the mechan- tures must coexist in relative harmony on
more than K-12 kids. In 2001, Project ics - such as the legal framework - of an a global scale. On a meta level, it seems

WIRED JU L Y 1 997 o 7 III

that the world is heading toward a future outward to the stars. Far better to turn
that's prefaced by what's happening in the our technologies not against one another
United States. but toward a joint effort that benefits all.
And the artificial divisions we perpetuate
ACIVIL!· between races and genders look strange
ZATI 0N as well. All humans stand on equal foot-
ing. They're not the same, but they're
OF CIVIL!· In 2020 humans arrive on treated as equals and given equal oppor-
ZATIONS Mars. I;'s an extraordinary tunities to excel. In 2020, this point, only
event by any measure, coming a half cen- recently an empty platitude, is accepted
tury after people first set foot on the by almost all.
Moon. The four astronauts touch down We're forming a new civilization, a
and beam their images back to the 11 bil- global civilization, distinct from those
lion people sharing in the moment. The that arose on the planet before. It's not
expedition is a joint effort supported by just Western civilization writ large - one
virtually all nations on the planet, the hegemonic culture forcing itself on others.
culmination of a decade and a half of It's not a resurgent Chinese civilization
intense focus on a common goal. A struggling to reassert itself after years of
remarkable enough technical achieve- being thwarted. It's a strange blend of
ment, the Mars landing is even more both - and the others. It's something dif-
important for what it symbolizes. ferent, something as yet being born. In
As the global viewing audience stares at 2020, information technologies have
the image of a distant Earth, seen from a spread to every corner of the planet. Real-
neighboring planet 35 million miles away, time language translation is reliable. The
the point is made as never before: We are great cross-fertilization of ideas, the ongo-
one world. All organisms crammed on the ing, never-ending planetary conversation
globe are intricately interdependent. has begun. From this, the new crossroads
Plants, animals, humans need to find a of all civilizations, the new civilization
way to live together on that tiny little will emerge.
place. By 2020, most people are acting on In many ways, it's a civilization of
that belief. The population has largely civilizations, to use a phrase coined by
stabilized. The spreading prosperity Samuel Huntington. We're building a
nudged a large enough block of people framework where all the world's civili-
into middle-class lifestyles to curtail high zations can exist side by side and thrive.
birth rates. In some pockets of the world Where the best attributes of each can
large families are still highly valued, but stand out and make their unique con-
most people strive only to replicate them- tributions. Where the peculiarities are
selves, and no more. Just as important, cherished and allowed to live on. We're
the world economy has evolved to a point entering an age where diversity is truly
roughly in balance with nature. To be valued - the more options the better.
sure, the ecosystem is not in perfect equi- Our ecosystem works best that way. Our
librium. More pollution enters the world market economy works best that way.
than many would like. But the rates of Our civilization, the realm of our ideas,
contamination have been greatly reduced, works best that way, too.
and the trajectory of these trends looks
promising. The regeneration of the global
environment is in sight.
THE
The images from Mars drive home MILLENNIAL By 2020, the world . IS
another point: We're one global society, GENERATION about to go through a
one human race. The divisions we impose changeover in power. This happens not
on ourselves look ludicrous from afar. through force, but through natural suc-
The concept of a planet of warring cession, a generational transition. The
nations, a state of affairs that defined the aging baby boomers, born in the wake of
previous century, makes no sense. Far World War II, at the beginning of the 20th
better to channel the aspirations of the century's 40-year global economic boom,
world's people into collectively pushing are fading from their prominent 172 ~
 the solutions to many seemingly intrac- transportation and communications
The Long Boom table problems. And they fully expect to technologies - railroads, telegraphs, and
~ 171 positions of economic and moral see some big surprises. Almost certainly telephones - spread all over the planet,
leadership. The tough-minded, techno- there will be unexpected breakthroughs enabling a coordination of economic activ-
savvy generation that trails them, the dig- in the realm of science and technology. ity at a level never seen before. Indeed, the
ital generation, has the new world wired. What will be the 21st-century equivalent 1890s have many parallels to the 1990s -
But these two generations have simply of the discovery of the electron or DNA? for better or worse. The potential of new
laid the groundwork, prepared the foun- What strange new ideas will emerge technologies appeared boundless. An
dations for the society, the civilization from the collective mind of billions of industrial revolution was spurring social
that comes next. brains wired together throughout the and political revolution. It couldn't be
The millennial generation is coming of planet? What will happen when members long, it seemed, before a prosperous,
age. These are the children born in the of this millennial generation possibly con- egalitarian society arrived. It was a wildly
1980s and 1990s, at the front end of this front a new species of their own making: optimistic time.
boom of all booms. These are the kids Homo superior? And what happens if Of course, it all ended in catastrophe.
who have spent their entire lives steeped after all the efforts to methodically scan The leaders of the world increasingly
in the new technologies, living in a net- the skies, they finally latch onto signs of focused on narrow national agendas. The
worked world. They have been educated intelligent life? nations of the world broke from the path
in wired schools, they have taken their of increasing integration and lined up in
first jobs implicitly understanding com-

JUST
competing factions. The result was World
puter technologies. Now they're doing the War I, with everyone using the new tech-
bulk of society's work. They are reaching Beam back down to Planet nologies to wage bigger, more efficient
their 40s and turning their attention to
the next generation of problems that
remain to be cracked.
O0 IT Earth. Get your head back
to 1997, not even halfway
through the transition of this 40-year era.
war. After the conflict, the continued pur-
suit of nationalist agendas severely pun-
ished the losers and consolidated colonial
These are higher-level concerns, the We're still on the front edge of the great empires. The world went from wild opti-
intractable problems - such as eradicat- global boom, the long boom. Almost all mism to - quite literally - depression, in
ing poverty on the planet - that people the work remains before us. And a hell of a very short time.
throughout history have believed impos- a lot of things could go wrong. The lessons of World War I contrast
sible to solve. Yet this generation has This is only a scenario of the future, by sharply with those of World War II. The
witnessed an extraordinary spread of no means an outright prediction of what move toward a closed economy and soci-
prosperity across the planet. They see is to come. We can be reasonably confi- ety after the first war led to global frag-
no inherent barrier to keep them from dent of the continuation of certain trends. mentation as nations pulled back on
extending that prosperity to - why not? - Much of the long boom's technology is themselves. In the aftermath of World
everyone. Then there's the environment. already in motion and almost inevitably War II, the impetus was toward an open
The millennial generation has inherited will appear within that span. Asia is economy and society - at least in half the
a planet that's not getting much worse. ascendant whether we like it or not. Bar- world. This led down a path of continuing
Now comes the more difficult problem of ring some bizarre catastrophe, that large integration. World leaders had the fore-
restoration, starting with the rain forests. portion of the world will continue to boom. sight to establish an array of international
Then there's governance. Americans can But there are many unknowns, all kinds institutions to manage the emerging global
vote electronically from home starting of critical uncertainties. Will Europe economy. They worked hard to rebuild
with the presidential election of 2008. summon the political will to make the their vanquished enemies, Germany and
But e-voting is just an extension of the transition to the new economy? Will Rus- Japan, through generous initiatives like
250-year-old system of liberal democracy. sia avoid a nationalist retrenchment and the Marshall Plan. This philosophical
Interactive technologies may allow radi- establish a healthy market economy - let shift from closed to open societies came
cally new forms of participatory democracy alone democracy? Will China fully embrace about through bold leadership, much of it
on a scale never imagined. Many young capitalism and avoid causing a new cold coming from the United States. In the
people say that the end of the nation-state - or hot - war? Will a rise in terrorism wake of World War I, American political
is in sight. cause the world to pull back in constant and business leaders embraced isolation-
These ambitious projects will not be fear? It's not technology or economics ism - with severe consequences for the
solved in a decade, or two, or even three. that pose the biggest challenges to the world. After World War II, they did the
But the life span of this generation will long boom. It's political factors, the ones opposite - with very different results.
stretch across the entire 21st century. dependent on strong leadership. Today, the United States has a similarly
Given the state of medical science, most One hundred years ago, the world went crucial leadership role to play. There are
members of the millennial generation through a similar process of technical purely practical reasons for this. The
will live 100 years. Over the course of innovation and unprecedented economic United States has the single largest econ-
their lifetimes, they confidently foresee integration that led to a global boom. New omy in the world, a market with a big

W I RED JULY 1997 D7fJ

influence on the flow of world trade. It concept of openness has never been more global technical standards and the alloca-
has the biggest research and scientific important. It's the linchpin that will make tion of what are, at the moment, scarce
establishment by far. Since the demise of the new world work. resources like airwaves. In the legal arena,
the Soviet Union, no other country fea- In a nutshell, the key formula for the we need to find ways to protect the rights
tures a comparable array of university coming age is this: Open, good. Closed, of creators and consumers of intellectual
research facilities, corporate industrial bad. Tattoo it on your forehead. Apply it property. In terms of the environment,
labs, and nonprofit think tanks. That to technology standards, to business the collective world community needs to
combination of a huge economy and a strategies, to philosophies of life. It's the get cracking on problems that endanger
scientific elite gives the United States the winning concept for individuals, for everyone: global climate change, loss of
world's strongest military; the country nations, for the global community in the the ozone layer, and other cross-border
can develop the weapons and pay the years ahead. If the world takes the closed problems like acid rain. And then there
bills. For the next 15 years at the very route, it starts a vicious circle: Nations are the issues that fall under security. We
least, America will be the preeminent turn inward. The world fragments into spent decades in excruciating negotiation
military power. These reasons alone isolated blocs. This strengthens tradition- to disarm and limit nuclear proliferation.
ensure that the United States, regardless alists and leads to rigidity of thought. In an age of information warfare, we face
of the intentions of its leaders, will have a This stagnates the economy and brings a very different set of security concerns
huge influence on any future scenario. increasing poverty. This leads to conflicts and a laborious process to find global
But the role of the United States is more and increasing intolerance, which pro- solutions - starting with a workable
involved, more complicated than that. motes an even more closed society and a accord on cryptography.
The United States is the great innovator more fragmented world. If, on the other The vast array of problems to solve and
nation, the incubator of new ideas. Just hand, the world adopts the open model, the sheer magnitude of the changes that
as the new technologies of the early then a much different, virtuous circle need to take place are enough to make
Industrial Revolution were born in Eng- begins: Open societies turn outward and any global organization give up, any
land, the vast majority of innovations in
the computer and telecommunications
fields are happening now in the United
With the coming wired, global society,
States. Americans are fundamentally openness has never been more important.
shaping the core technologies and infra-
structure that will be at the foundation of It's the linchpin that makes everything work.
the 21st century. Partly because of that,
the US is the first country to transition to strive to integrate into the world. This nation back down, any reasonable per-
the new economy. American corporations openness to change and exposure to new son curl up in a ball. That's where Amer-
are the first to adopt the new technologies ideas leads to innovation and progress. icans have one final contribution to make:
and adapt to the changing economic real- This brings rising affluence and a decrease optimism, that maddening can-do atti-
ities. As a nation, the United States is in poverty. This leads to growing toler- tude that often drives foreigners insane.
figuring out how to finesse the new model ance and appreciation of diversity, which Americans don't understand limits. They
of high economic growth driven by new promotes a more open society and a more have boundless confidence in their abil-
technologies. The American people are highly integrated world. ity to solve problems. And they have an
feeling the first social and cultural effects. The United States, as first among amazing capacity to think they really
And the government is the first to come equals, needs to live this concept in the can change the world. A global transfor-
under the strain to change. The United coming decades. One of the first great mation over the next quarter century
States is paving the way for other devel- tasks will be integrating its former com- inevitably will bring a tremendous
oped nations and, eventually, the rest of munist adversaries China and Russia into amount of trauma. The world will run
the nations of the world. the world community, in much the same into a daunting number of problems as
Even more important, the United States way that it once did Japan and Germany. we transition to a networked economy
serves as steward of the idea of an open This will be the main geopolitical chal- and a global society. Apparent progress
society. The US is home to the core economic lenge of the next dozen years. We'll know will be followed by setbacks. And all
and political values that emerged from if we made it by 2010. Then there's the along the way the chorus of naysayers
the 20th century - the free-market economy need to create a complex fabric of new will insist it simply can't be done. We'll
and democracy. But the idea of an open global economic and political institutions need some hefty doses of indefatigable
society is broader than that. Americans to fit the 21st century. Though these need optimism. We'll need an optimistic vision
believe in the free flow of ideas, products, not take the bureaucratic shape they did of what the future can be. __ _
and people. Historically, this has taken in the past, a certain level of coordination
the form of protecting speech, promoting of global activities will continue to fall in Talk with Peter Schwartz and Peter Leyden
trade, and welcoming immigrants. With the public sphere. In the technical realm, live Wednesday, July 9, at 6 p.m. PDT in
the coming of a wired, global society, the some body ne~ds to mediate the setting of the Wired Talk room at www.talk.com/.

WIRED JULY 1997

Biometrics yet low enough. Keystroke dynamics (where
a biometric device samples typing patterns
says John Woodward, a former CIA officer
currently researching legal and policy impli-
... 135 The machines are so advanced, makers a thousand times per second) has stalled in cations of biometrics as a student at George-
claim, they catch a cold with you. part because keyboards aren't adequately town University Law Center."Now is not the
Retinal scans, on the other hand, have standardized. Analyst Erik Bowman, who time to blink."
proven as accurate or more so than voice writes for Persona/Identification News, says It may be time, however, to take a critical
verification, hand geometry, and digital some of these devices will range from $1,000 look at the move toward industry standards.
fingerprinting in limited federal and state to $4,000 and are expected to be commer- Roughly 100 vendors sell patented biomet-
testing. Users place their eyes a few inches cially viable by 1999. ric systems that cannot talk to each other.
from an incandescent light beam that maps But as the technology infiltrates the market,
the vein patterns of the eyeball's innermost THE MARK OF THE BEAST manufacturers predict inevitable pressure
layer. Even if biometric products become readily for standardization to facilitate the aggrega-
EyeDentify, the Baton Rouge, Louisiana- available, can we stomach them? Anyone who tion of personal biometric files.
based outfit that holds the patent for retina followed the scream sessions over the immi- Vast storehouses of data have passed con-
scans, hasn't turned a profit since it was gration reform bill in the 104th Congress stitutional muster before. The US Supreme
founded in 1976, though the firm has sold remembers politicians disavowing national Court, in the 1977 decision Whalen v. Roe,
equipment to the military for years, says ID cards, retina scans, and tattoos to catalog upheld New York's right to record sensitive
EyeDentify vice president Buddy Boyett. the US workforce."The government's thirst medical information in centralized databases,
The company got some high-profile expo- for personal data cannot be quenched," finding that the state had showed a proper
sure by lending machines to the producers warned ACLU legislative counsel Gregory concern for the protection of privacy. Since
of Mission: Impossible, True Lies, and Demoli- Nojeim in a 1995 testimony before the Sen- then, there have been numerous federal and
tion Man, among others. Now a doleful ate Judiciary Committee. Representative state database schemes. In October 1995,
Boyett worries that over-the-top film gim- Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) dubbed a proposal the Federal Highway Administration awarded
micks, like spiking a warden's eyeball on a for a computerized worker registry "1-800- a $400,000 contract to San Jose State Uni-
versity's College of Engineering to develop
standards for a "biometric identifier" on com-
Forget Luddite hysteria - some big mercial driver's licenses and for use in a cen-
tralized national database.
opposition to biometrics comes At a biometrics conference for government
from religious groups preaching Apocalypse. officials last fall, Pennsylvania welfare official
James Weaver told a packed hall that he plans
to eventually share his state's digital finger-
pencil tip and holding it up to a retinal BIG BROTHER." Privacy advocates used the print data with neighboring state welfare
scanner, have hurt real-world business. occasion to trot out statistics on the prosti- authorities to prevent recipients from col-
If facial or retinal scans seem intrusive, tution of the Social Security number by lecting benefits in multiple states under
consider this: body odors, unique to each of direct marketers. assumed names. Florida state senator Bill
us, can be digitally recorded and used with While it is tempting to write off much of Bankhead suggested that businesses will
biometric security devices. And a hand, not the opposition to biometrics as Luddite want to log on to his state's new database
an armpit, will suffice for a sample, according hysteria, some religious groups are preach- of benefits recipients, soon to include finger-
to British developer Mastiff Electronic Systems ing biometrics as the coming of the Apoca- prints."We're talking about having as much
Ltd., which makes a new sensor called Scen- Iypse. ln an October 9, 1995, segment titled as possible in a single file," he told confer-
tinel. Senior engineer Stephen McMillan, "Biometrics: Chipping Away Your Rights?" encegoers at a CardTech trade show last
however, says the product won't be ready on the Christian Broadcasting Network, tele- year."1 think that many businesses would
for another three years. And the price still vangelist Pat Robertson warned viewers of pay extra to have that information ... Maybe
stinks: about £30,000 (US$48,600) for a test The 700 Club, "The Bible says the time is we can even make a profit."
model. Even so, Mastiff engineers report going to come that you cannot buy or sell The prospect of interoperable, even net-
interest from the British embassy in Buenos except with a mark placed on your hand or worked biometric databases raises a fright-
Aires, Saudi Arabia's National Guard, and on yourforehead ... It is happening, ladies ening specter: our body parts and prints
private Indian and Japanese companies. and gentlemen, exactly according to the could soon be bought and sold like Social
Demand for other technologies such as Book of Revelation ." Security numbers by direct marketers, gov-
wrist-vein recognition, signature verification, But the voices predicting doom are ernment clerks, or medical providers. One
and keystroke dynamics is developing more whispers compared with the shouts of bio- "harmless" little retina scan, some opthal-
slowly. More than 100 patents have been metrics' increasingly vocal backers."We mologists warn, could indicate that a per-
issued in signature recognition, but credit are eyeball to eyeball with a new, exciting son has AIDS or abuses drugs. Woodward
card companies have been slow to buy such technology that can make government answers that federal, state, and even private
devices because false rejection rates aren't programs more effective and efficient," administrators of central biometric data-

W I RED JULY 1997

bases should prove they're not exploiting
the data for a use that wasn't intended -
Until then, while unregulated researchers
race to develop a kinder, gentler biometric
Anguilla
say, sharing retina readings with Medicare and various groups jockey for administra- ... 144 The long arm of Big Brother
providers who suspect drug use when the tive control, sniping entrepreneurs freely Through the bare lobby of the Inter-Island
scan was gathered to prove a person was a dis their competitors. Most finger-imagers, Hotel, past the kitchen, across an empty
legal immigrant. for example, mock FingerMatrix for cleaning room where faded pictures of Louis
Precisely to avoid the dangers of cen- its scanner with a water-and-alcohol solu- Farrakhan and Nelson Mandela have been
tralization and unauthorized disclosures, tion to improve scan resolution - these test wrapped in plastic and pinned to the wall,
biometrics makers are pushing "one-to- conditions, they say, will likely never be repro- we come to an unmarked plywood door.
one" matching systems. With one-to-one, duced in the real world. Retina and iris scan- Entering, we're suddenly in the largest
a smartcard - not a database - holds the ners are edgy rivals. Even Miller intimated meeting hall in Anguilla, a modern, air-
sensitive information. When ID is required, that some less-than-forthcoming compa- conditioned conference room big enough
a biometric reader simply matches the nies cleverly cook their books to keep error for maybe 80 attendees. Every morning,
particular body part with the data on the rates low. the cryptographers gather here clutching
card. "You could come to the incorrect Besides the technical bugs, more obstacles their laptops. Many of the presentations
conclusion that biometrics are a poten- to large-scale use await, not least of which is are uncompromisingly technical, so I hang
tial threat to an individual's privacy," says the missing-body-part conundrum."With any out in the adjacent dining room, trying to
Ben Miller, CardTech conference chair and device, some portion of the population - convince cypherpunks that it's safe to
publisher of Personal Identification News. 1 to 3 percent - doesn't have that biometric," speak to me.
"The fact is, they're probably the best and says San Jose State University biometrics Here I find Sameer Parekh, a prototypi-
possibly the only tool that can guarantee expert James Wayman, who spent a disap- cal online activist. He's frail and young,
the individual some control over personal pointing few years at the NSA trying to sell but there's a ferocious gleam in his eye,
information ." Miller calls the one-to-one his colleagues on using head resonance as and he's been a rebel since his high school
smartcard a "secure valet" for personal data. a biometric identifier. days in Libertyville, Illinois ("Tyranny-
ville;' as he calls it), where he published
a newsletter ranting about the abuses of
Boosters, for their part, say biometrics government power. In his last year at
high school, Parekh and his fellow stu-
are the best tool to guarantee individual dents were asked to predict their future .
control over personal information. "I said I would either. be insanely rich, in
jail, or followed by the CIA." He laughs
happily. "I suppose one of those things is
"And it makes no sense," he adds, "to have As Wayman explains, some people's going to happen."
centralized databases for the day-to-day fingerprints are scarred from years of brick- Today, after a troubled attempt at run-
person ." laying or chemical exposure, while sufferers ning an Internet service provider offering
of glaucoma or diabetes may give inconsis- total anonymity to some dubious clients,
THE MISSING-BODY-PART CONUNDRUM tent eye and hand readings. Wayman's office Parekh has become a software publisher.
Currently housed at the National Security at the San Jose Biometric Identification Because of US export laws, Microsoft and
Agency, a working group of federal bureau- Research Institute, for example, controls Netscape are compelled to use weak
crats founded the Biometric Consortium in access to its building with hand geometry encryption in server software that they
the early 1990s. lts 1995 charter promises readers. Two of 200 people who need regu- sell overseas. Parekh takes advantage of
to "promote the science and performance lar access cannot pass the hand test."One the companies' weakness by marketing
of biometrics" for the government. fellow is missing a finger," Wayman says. Stronghold, which adds powerful encryp-
Consortium members include state wel- "The second fellow - nobody knows why - tion to Apache, a piece of freeware that
fare agencies, driver's license bureaus, the has a hand that's too variable." If the build- runs 45 percent of the Web sites in the
Immigration and Naturalization Service, ing converted to a fingerprint reader, one world (more than Netscape and Microsoft
the Social Security Administration, and the of Wayman's buddies couldn't visit."He has combined). He avoids export regulations
Internal Revenue Service. Biometrics vendors a severe fungal infection on his hand that's by shipping the software from England
are lobbying the consortium in the hopes incurable. It causes such cracking of his fin- and doing his development overseas.
of getting on its good side for the inevi- gerprints that they are unreadable." For all "We don't reveal exactly where," he says,
table day the group morphs into a regula- his biometric expertise, the professor of "because the US government has a special
tory agency with power to evaluate and engineering knows of only one solution: envoy on cryptography named David
approve products. As is, the Biometric Con- "If DNA testing ever gets to be real time and Aaron who goes around trying to per-
sortium wants to police inflated claims of is not intrusive, then I think that would solve suade other countries to follow American
accuracy and will soon award a contract for the problem," he muses. "Everyone seems policy, and we don't want to single out a
the first-ever government evaluation center. to have DNA." • • • particular country for special treat- 176 ~

WIRED JULY 1997

Anguilla lutely secure phone calls, the Feds bought
9,000 - almost the entire production run
so strong, society cannot penetrate it -
even if everyone agrees the hidden infor-
.... 175ment from this guy." - using money acquired from civil forfei- mation is very important, and will save
His company, C2Net, has launched tures. You can buy other voice-encryption many, many lives, and a court has autho-
another encryption product named Safe- phone systems, but the manufacturers rized us after a neutral judicial review."
Passage that does for client computers refuse to reveal functional details, so the Consequently, Charney is a diehard
what Stronghold did for servers. "This systems cannot be verified and probably believer in key escrow, whereby a third
will really make the government upset," aren't truly secure. party (such as a government agency) holds
Parekh says. "It's how we choose proj - Phil Zimmermann's PGPfone software the keys to all encrypted communications.
ects;' he jokes. "We ask ourselves, how gives Net users a way to chat online with But consider a security expert's per-
upset will this make the government?" total security, but the audio quality is ter- spective: "All these systems advocating a
SafePassage adds its own layer of secur- rible. Sensing a market opportunity, Eric trusted third party are ill conceived and
ity to any browser - making it a useful Blossom has spent three years perfecting naIve," says Marc Briceno, who worked as
tool because the versions of Netscape and a state-of-the-art voice encryptor that he an ecash evangelist for DigiCash. "What
Internet Explorer that people download calls the GSP 8191. It's a modem-sized did it take - $300,000 to compromise a
within the US are generally crippled with metal box that samples your voice digi- CIA branch chief in the Aldrich Ames
export-level encryption. tally and processes it with triple-DES case, even when he knew that his revela-
Parekh instantly dismisses accusations encryption. The internal architecture is tions would cost people their lives? How
that criminals will take advantage of fully documented so that users can verify much will it take to bribe the junior sys-
secure encryption and instead flips the its security, and each conversation between tems administrator who changes the
supposition around. "Without strong two GSP-equipped phones creates its own backup tapes each night at the place
encryption, financial transactions online code keys in such a way that a third party where keys are stored?"
are vulnerable," he notes. "We need cannot obtain the keys by listening in on DigiCash offers the first and only sys-
strong encryption so that the world won't the call. tem of electronic money to guarantee
total user anonymity (although the com-
pany prefers the word "privacy"). The
If smartcards become the dominant electronic product prohibits anyone from profiling
your spending habits or impersonating
substitute, won't this mean that the banking you to make purchases. Since this would
fraternity keeps control of the system? eliminate huge annual losses in fraud,
you'd think it would delight banks and
credit card companies, but after two
be held hostage to criminals." At Willie's Inn, a 1960s-style two-story years, DigiCash is still struggling.
So this puts him on the side of law and white building on an Anguilla back road, Briceno seems unconcerned. He's tall,
order? "That's right." He nods earnestly, I sit with Blossom on a balcony where amiable, short-haired (unlike many
giving me a thumbs-up. "I'm a real law- almond trees, cedars, and hibiscus shade cypherpunks), and in a cream linen jacket
and-order type." us from the tropical sun. He shows me and cotton pants, he's almost stylish,
his prototype, and I hold it in my hand, which puts him in a class of his own. He
Ecash tussles reminding myself that this harmless little speaks in flawless but accented English,
Actually there seem to be no bona fide law- metal box is classified as a munition under yet refuses to tell me where he grew up,
enforcement personnel at the conference - US law. Conceivably, Blossom could face saying with a shrug, "Like many cypher-
at least, none I could identify. "Have you five years in jail and a $1 million fine if punks, I am very protective of my privacy."
played Spot-the-Fed?" one cypherpunk he exported it without a license. The idea I sit with him outside the conference
asks another during lunch. "There has to seems laughable - but so far as the Justice hotel on a bench nailed together from ply-
be at least one, don't you think?" Department is concerned, it's no laughing wood sheets. A lizard basks on the wall
"It would be an insult if there wasn't," matter. behind us, and some roosters wander in
his friend says. About a year or so ago I spoke to Scott from the adjacent lot where a woman
If this sounds self-important, even melo- Charney, chief of the Computer Crime Unit hangs wash on a line.
dramatic, maybe it's a reasonable response at the Justice Department, who outlined "We signed up Deutsche Bank last
to the US government's unrelenting hard his deep concerns about strong encryp- year," Briceno says, when I suggest to him
line on cryptography. Consider this case tion. "If a judge says we can go into some- that few banks seem interested. "They are
history: According to documents obtained one's home;' he said, "this is to protect an international powerhouse, and one of
by the Electronic Privacy Information society. Our intrusion is a right for society the largest banks in Germany. We also
Center in Washington, DC, when AT&T at the expense of the individual. Suppose signed up EUnet in Finland, and the
wanted to sell a telephone system with you buy a bigger lock; we bring a bigger largest banks in Norway and Austria,
built-in DES algorithms to enable abso- sledgehammer. But cryptography is a lock respectively, Den norske Bank and Bank

W I RED JULY 1997 DHJ

Austria. Beta software has been supplied property - it can be bought and sold. The bank. It's a very frustrating situation."
to Advance Bank in Australia, that will go only way to avoid this is by paying cash or Briceno won't comment directly on this
live within a matter of months." using DigiCash." but since then DigiCash has hired a new
More recently, Nomura Research Insti- DigiCash is the brainchild of David CEO and policies may change in the future.
tute in Japan has licensed DigiCash for a Chaum, who conceived the idea of anon- Meanwhile, Europeans already have an
scheme that allows employees and associ- ymized transactions in the 1970s as a grad alternative: cash-value smartcards such
ates to make electronic payments. student at UC Berkeley. Chaum acquired as Mondex (the world's first) , which was
Still, only about 2,500 consumers have a master's and a PhD in computer science, developed in Britain. When you insert the
opened electronic accounts in the US. then founded the International Associa- card into an ATM, value is transferred
Briceno blames this partly on regulations tion for Cryptologic Research before he from your account and stored in the
that force a bank to obtain a customer's decided to apply his concepts via Digi- microchip embedded into the card. Later,
signature before establishing an account. Cash in 1990. at your local supermarket, you pay for
"This of course violates the first law of Chaum is revered among cypherpunks, groceries by inserting the card in a reader
Internet commerce: Thou Shalt Not Make yet some also blame him for bad business that subtracts the appropriate amount.
Thy Customer Get up from a Chair." decisions. "He is a highly moral person," In 1996, Bellcore published a paper
He finds it inexplicable that people are one cypherpunk tells me, "which is a pain claiming that if you microwaved a smart-
willing to continue trusting credit cards. in the neck because this is a cutthroat card to induce errors, you could reverse-
"Data mining is on the increase," he says. business. Banks are his competitors, and engineer it. This turned out to be largely
"Many corporations are doing it. Last they don't want his product because it's so false, and in any case the Mondex encryp-
year, Citibank purchased a computer efficient, it will destroy the profits of tion scheme has been changed since then
system for fraud detection via suspicious ordinary payment systems. Also, banks to provide better security. MasterCard
buying patterns - and also to predict don't care about privacy - in fact, they like has since bought 51 percent of Mondex,
future buying patterns of cardholders. to know what their customers are doing. for somewhere between $100 million and
Profiles are being built of who you are, There's a complete mismatch between $150 million, and Mondex is now posi-
what you buy, and what you are likely to what DigiCash is trying to do and what tioned to serve as a cash substitute in half
buy in the future. Courts have ruled that the banks want, yet Chaum refuses to sell a dozen countries.
transactional information is not your licenses to anyone who isn't a mainstream David Birch runs a British consul- 178 ~
 three supermarket chains while the stores encryption will be included where it's
Anguilla track buying patterns. "The supermarket permitted by law. Just to make things
.... 177 tancy company named Hyperion just wants to know what toothpaste you even more interesting, smartcards will be
that advises Mondex. "By the end of this buy, not who you are. After three months supported.
year;' he says, "there will be millions of they send you money-off vouchers for the In fact, Goldstein has a stripped-down
people wandering around with smartcards toothpaste you didn't buy." Birch spreads version of the Java language that fits in
in their pockets. All the crypto is on the his hands. "Who cares about that?" ROM on a smartcard, allowing program-
cards, so they don't need a secure channel In the US, there's more resistance to mers to write a Java applet using the card
to communicate - which makes them new payment systems. Still, last December, as a micromicrocomputer. Since a smart-
perfect for the Internet." Consequently, Microsoft started publishing specifications card has only 512 bytes of RAM (that's
according to Birch, we will buy our own defining a Windows standard for smart- bytes, not kilobytes), the system has severe
card readers and plug them into our PCs card handlers. It won't be alone. limitations. But maybe there's a glimpse
- and there lies the future of electronic Ted Goldstein has a thick, sandy beard of the future here: a little piece of plastic
money. and an amiable grin. He displays more that could ultimately carry as much com-
But if cards become the dominant elec- warmth than your typical computer geek, puting power as a Pentium PC.
tronic substitute, won't this mean that the but when he talks, the words are as metic-
banking fraternity keeps control of the ulously organized as a computer program, The Net as an island
system? Not necessarily. Mondex is not creating a sense of relentless competence. The crypto conference is a hit. The pro-
a bank, but a private company largely At Sun Microsystems, he's leading an ini- gram is packed with useful content, and
owned by banks. In fact, it could be a first tiative to create a software "framework" the cypherpunks seem totally at home in
step toward cash systems that circumvent for electronic commerce that will accept Anguilla. Of course, codeheads are notori-
banks entirely. Anyone in the Netherlands a new kind of Java program module he ously indifferent to creature comforts,
can issue smartcards - although they calls "cassettes." and I suspect that some normally live in
need a "relationship" with a bank to han- Think back to the days when each word- conditions comparable to my hotel room,
dle cash flows. The British are more lais- processing package created its own kind which makes the island seem like a home
sez-faire; they feel that open competition of window. "Today windows are a standard away from home.
is inevitable. The only real holdouts are feature of the operating system," says On Thursday night, we head out along
the Germans, who insist that smartcards Goldstein. "We want to do the same for a dirt road to Rafe's, a barn with no walls,
just a big peaked roof of corrugated iron
resting on 10-foot wooden posts driven
Cypherpunks don't give a damn about money into the sandy ground. Who needs walls
when the temperature is 80 degrees day
laundering and view government as an and night? Reggae music pounds from
archaic encumberance ripe for demolition. under the roof and echoes away across
the scrubby hillside. Our sandals crunch
across a floor of stone chippings, and we
can be issued only by banks. financial applications. Whether you're plant ourselves around an orange-and-
Birch suggests that this debate is redun- tracking investments or making payments, green picnic table. The cypherpunks start
dant because unregulated currency substi- there'll be a consistent look and feel." eating barbecued chicken and talking
tutes already exist. Frequent-flier miles, A key feature of this vision is a Java crypto, which attracts some speculative
for instance, have value that is recognized wallet. On your screen you'll see a picture stares from locals. The nerds don't care,
by airlines, hotels, car rental companies, of a traditional wallet containing various they've reached conversational critical
and long distance phone companies. What cards, which you can click on to perform mass. The acronyms flow as freely as the
if the miles were stored on each user's different transactions. "In a real wallet," Caribbean beer.
smartcard instead of on a distant main- says Goldstein, "no two of us will have I find myself next to a slightly drunk
frame computer? Consumers could trade the same set of cards. It will be the same British programmer whose start-up com-
mileage among themselves using card-to- in our system, as users plug different pany has written software to manage all
card transactions (which are permitted cassettes into the framework. The card- the business of a regular stock exchange.
in the Mondex system), and suddenly issuing institutions can be separate and "Our system is totally secure," he tells
we'd have a totally independent form of independent - yet they can all conform me, "with public key encryption, and it
currency. to the standards of the framework." could probably handle about 1,000 orders
But Birch believes "there is no visible Sometime this summer, Goldstein a day, running on single Pentium PCs.
demand for absolute privacy in a payment predicts that developers will be able to The cost per trade is around 30 cents.
system." He points out the ubiquity of download the Java Commerce Toolkit And we've already published the source
magnetic-stripe "loyalty cards" in Britain, from a Web page while consumers will code online so anyone can use it."
giving customers discounts at the big get free copies of the Java wallet. Strong We leave Rafe's around 1 a.m. and walk

WIRED JULY 1997

out under the stars. The trade winds are of hidden costs. one can cheat, whole sets of laws become
blowing, and there's a great feeling of Suppose that electronic cash is made so unnecessary and the justice system can be
simplicity and peace - now I finally downsized. In this vision, various forms of
understand why the cypherpunks feel so authentication would guarantee trust, and
comfortable on this little island. It's unde- everyone would benefit.
veloped territory, like the Net. It's uncom- Unfortunately, we need to do more than
mercialized, virtually crime-free, informal, merely provide people with the tools to
untaxed, and unregulated. Best of all, the make this happen. DigiCash already did
local government is so small and unob- that, and it hasn't worked. The costs of
trusive, it creates a utopian feeling of weak security and lack of privacy are not
freedom. sufficiently obvious to consumers, and the
This, of course, leads us to the big ques- benefits of strong security seem idealistic
tion: Can the Net preserve its state of and theoretical. Consequently, people
unregulated freedom as it matures into show little interest in paying for security
a vast worldwide society supporting all and privacy.
kinds of financial transactions? But something Parekh said comes back
Well, consider the current situation in to me: "People won't pay very much for
most developed countries. Conventional privacy services - but they will pay for
monetary systems are so insecure, they a software product that just happens to
don't just permit crime, they encourage have security and privacy built into it."
it. People write bad checks, forge currency, This, then, is the urgent need: financial
and use stolen credit card numbers, and cryptography that is so simple, cheap,
a huge web of regulations has evolved to ubiquitous, and strong, that we can take
cope with these problems. Laws must be it for granted. With rebellious determina-
enforced by police, while courts and pris- tion, this is what many of the attendees
ons process the law breakers. Overall, secure, it can virtually eliminate fraud. in Anguilla hope to achieve - if they are
insecure systems create a huge overhead This changes the picture radically. If no allowed to do so . • • •

Absolut www.absolutvodka.com NEe Monitors www.nec.com

Revo www.revo.com

Saturn www.saturncars.com/

ATB.T www.att.com Sony www.sony.com

BMW www.bmwusa.com SouthPeak Interactive www.southpeak.com

Teva www.tevasandals.com/

Toyota www.toyota.com/

US Robotics www.usr.com

Digital Equipment www.dec.com Vancouver Film School

E*Trade www.etrade.com

e.Schwab www.schwab.com Visa www.visa.com

Afterlife First-time owners, on the other hand, usually
look for new computers, and they rely on the
doned piers, and shipyards, HMR's 100,000-
square-foot warehouse is big enough to gen-
~ 151 to good use or scrapped for money. The reputation of a national chain store or a man- erate its own weather patterns on a foggy day.
center will survive. Lately, Burgett's been nego- ufacturer's warranty to feel comfortable. Brian Squadrons of propane-fueled forklifts race
tiating a deal to move a VAC 9000 mainframe Kushner of ReCompute in Austin, Texas, wants around the floor, moving nearly a million
to Russia for use in that country's space pro- to change all that. Kushner had a brainstorm pounds of electronic gear in and out each
gram. New opportunities always come up. And two years ago: he decided to standardize sec- month. While most of the space in this levia-
some corporate donors keep bringing him ondhand computers so that novices would feel than facility is occupied by pallets of beige
equipment, because they don't want publicity, confident enough to buy one. One of Kushner's PC cabinets, computers don't end their lives
or because they want to help a school or charity models, for example, sells for about $899 - here. This is just another waystation on the
that's working only with the San Rafael center. half the price of a new Pentium machine, path to a more drawn-out demise.
including plenty of memory, a monitor, a war- Like James Burgett's center, HMR used to
For the recipients of such free equipment, it's ranty and service contract, and special start- break down PCs to get fixable machines run-
hard to lose. The nonprofit groups do a pretty up software for beginners thrown in. While ning again and separate out scrap. But the
good job matching the right computer with most used computers are set up a few at a price of RAM chips has plummeted from $12
your needs, and the machines usually come set time in the back of some guy's fix-it shop, apiece to just a dollar; with more efficient man-
up and ready to go. Every recycler has a James Kushner's store sells almost a thousand used ufacturing, the amount of precious metals in
Burgett figure somewhere back in the ware- 486s and Pentium machines a month, with boards has decreased. Today, HMR buys bulk
house, someone who has lovingly restored four standard models to choose from. electronic equipment for between 4 and 10
each computer for reuse. Picking up old tech- Does Kushner worry that manufacturers will cents a pound, culls what it can sell off imme-
nology on the cheap is actually a pretty fair think he's moving in on their territory? On the diately - working machines and equipment
gamble. At worst, you choose a bum machine, contrary, the nearby Dell Computer factory is with a secondary life - and stuffs the rest into
waste a little time, and have to dispose of the one of his biggest suppliers. When someone cargo containers bound for the Philippines.
junk yourself. returns a Dell, the company regularly resells it There,400 overseas employees swap parts into
old PCs to get them running; recycle gold, cop-
per, and steel; and make electric regulators
While some secondhand pes live on in out of power supplies. All in all, 70 percent of
HMR's San Francisco inventory sails to Asia
one piece, the end-of-the-line recyclers each month.
grind up whole machines for ferrous material. There are also plenty of smaller players at
this point in the food chain, scrappers and
recyclers who take dead computers apart and
Ironically, it's the folks selling used com- to ReCompute. "We're expanding the market separate them into circuit boards, plastic, and
puters for a living who have the tough job of to users who wouldn't be able to buy a com- steel. Sometimes they grind up whole machines
convincing buyers that the old machines are puter otherwise," says Kushner. " It's just like and separate them into ferrous and nonferrous
really a good deal. To be sure, a few for-profit how the used car business propelled the new material. The steel cases go to a metal recycler.
resellers do brisk business in surplus and car industry in the 1950s." Cables go through a refining process that
refurbished machines - The Wall Street Journal removes the insulation and recovers the cop-
notes that 2.4 million used computers were Some secondhand computers continue their per. The plastic is often landfilled or incinerated
resold last year. And leasing companies such lives in one piece, serving in schools, charities, as fuel; only in the last year have some elec-
as Comdisco (www.comdisco.comlj. whose and the homes and offices of bargain hunters. tronics recyclers found ways to process plastic.
average contract lasts less than three years, Thousands more leave nonprofit refurbishers "Industry people get into the high tech busi-
are already starting to sell off old Pentiums and computer resellers as scrap. So what's the ness because they think it's sexy and exciting,"
by the thousands. Still, you get the sense that final resting place for a truly dead PC? says Kelly Corbet, whose business, Corbet Con-
their customers are mostly people familiar After places like Computer and Technology sulting, helps manufacturers prepare their
with the technology; they know how to pick Resource Centers International decide they products for a computer's last days on earth
a good PC out of the pile, and they know what have no use for a piece of equipment, profes- by using recyclable plastics and designing for
can go wrong. The Boston Computer Exchange, sional electronics recyclers squeeze out the easy disassembly. "But they don't want to think
for example, has sold used machines since last few cents of value. While recycling for of the end-of-life issues."
1982 and is legendary among early adopters. charity is a recent phenomenon, the pros have Cathode-ray tubes, for instance, are the bane
The first used PC broker in the United States, been around since before the first IBM per- of computer recycling. When you're in front
the exchange is now one of the nation's sonal computer. of your screen, the monitor uses lead to keep
largest, with annual sales of $36 million. HMR, an Australian-based enterprise, recy- you safe from radiation - so much lead that
Onsale (www.onsale.comlj. another reseller, cles all kinds of electronic equipment. Down recycling centers can become toxic waste sites
handles as much or more in live auctions over in a forsaken industrial wasteland in San Fran- just by holding on to them. Most of the toxic
the Net. cisco, next to an electric power plant, aban- glass tubes get sealed into landfills. Some CRT

W I RED JULY 1997 D81!]

screens, however, are crunched into shards and a few years out of college. One is Peter Wash- These machines do, however, achieve a kind
sent to a Canadian company called Noranda burn, an advisory board member of the his- of transcendence. "Many computers don't die,"
Metallurgy, where they're fed into a smelting tory association; the other is Erich Schienke, Crosby allows. "What you end up with is a
furnace as flux to separate the copper from who helps edit the association's journal. Hav- perfectly good computer as a doorstop. But
the nonvaluable material. ing majored in topics involving the social you don't want to throw it out. There's some-
Gold-printed circuit boards follow a more history of technology and the physics of Tesla thing in the American psyche that rebels
tortuous path. First, they're hammered and coils, Crosby's understudies are as passionate against throwing out a working computer."
chopped into dime-sized bits, then the fiber- about conserving vintage machines as their When we arrive at the secret containers, the
glass - the green material that gives an inte- mentor. This morning they're all looking for small corridor between the giant cargo boxes
grated circuit its structure - is melted off. parts and pieces to round out the associa- is quiet. Tactical director EI-Kareh holds the keys
The resulting metals go through a grinding tion's collection. But this swap meet turns up and opens the doors. As they swing wide, tiny
process, and the gold is recovered by smelting nothing, so we move on to another junk sale high-pitched, almost angelic sounds rise from
the dust. Noranda is one of the biggest smelters across the Valley. the rusty hinges. Inside is a SDS 930, with all
around, so many of the parts in your computer The Computer History Association already the original software, manuals, and documen-
may one day end up either at a lead smelter owns a broad representation of the famous tation. It sits there, quiet but perfect, about
in New Brunswick or an even bigger facility microcomputers made in the Golden State - two-thirds as long as the container. Boxes of
in Rouyn-Noranda, a northern Quebec town Apple Lisa, Adam, Kaypro II, Processor Tech- software and books fill the rest of the space.
named after its largest employer. nology SOL-20, Xerox Alto, IMSAI, Osborne I'm beginning to understand. The soul of
Ones, Osborne Executives, Osborne Vixens, the machine isn't transcendent, like the one
No one's going to melt down the SDS 930, et cetera - fine machines that will soon have we learned about in catechism class. There is
however. That business with dropping com- a showcase in the San Francisco Computer no computer heaven. Computers conform to
puters on the floor, or feeding them into the Museum, an educational and conservation an earlier creed, handed down to us by ancient
hungry maw of a fiery smelter? Forget about institute planned by Crosby and journalist Greeks like Aristotle. They occupy a plane
it. A vintage mainframe, the Scientific Data Fred Davis. In the meantime, along with the where material existence - its formal configu-
Systems 930 was used during the Cold War to
monitor nuclear test agreements and process
satellite data. The computer still exists, but Though pes may be nothing like people,
I can't tell you where it is. Only Kip Crosby,
executive director of the Computer History the soul of the computer is imparted
Association of California, and Edwin Vivian
EI-Kareh, its "tactical director," know the exact
through the resurrected form of the machine.
location. Still in perfect working order, the
relic is the crown jewel of the association's SDS 930, these legends of California comput- ration and its function - contribute to the soul's
collection. ing reside in cargo containers in a parking lot existence as much as notions of unseen spirits.
Crosby and I are slated to meet at the Santa somewhere in Silicon Valley. Though they've never met, both Kip Crosby
Clara Saturday Sale, a weekly event organized Much of the collection was donated by from the Computer History Association and
by a nonprofit recycler named Computer readers of the association's journal, Analytical James Burgett from Computer and Technology
Recycling. All the big hardware collectors in Engine. A well-written black-and-white desk- Resource Centers International are preserving
town - mostly potbellied old-timers and high top zine, it showcases contributors who get the life of the machine. With some luck, the
tech retirees - come by to do a morning once- oddly aroused by such arcana as the ancestry SDS 930 will one day hum smoothly in an air-
through. For many, the weekend ritual of of the desktop calculator, the birth ofthe conditioned room of a new computer museum.
rummaging through flea markets, swap Macintosh, and the special parts necessary Likewise, Burgett's refurbished beige boxes
meets, and electronics salvage stores is an to get obsolete equipment running. Some of have been reborn into some school or charity
infinite loop disguised as fun. One week, you Crosby's own writing positively anthropomor- office. The recycler may replace every part,
may drop a few bucks to buy a Hewlett- phizes computers. An article titled "De-Cruft- and he may not treat them with much respect,
Packard DeskJet printer. Next week, you'll go ing a Power Supply Fan" begins:"The fan in but the soul of the computer is imparted to
hunting for the software to drive it and the the power supply of an average desktop com- its next user through the resurrected form
manuals to set it up. Inevitably, the thrill is in puter leads a ghastly life. It survives on a diet of the machine.
the chase, and the chase is never over. of spiky wall voltage and dust-laden hot air." As Crosby describes the phenomenon in
Describing himself on the phone before the In other places Crosby is adamant that com- Analytical Engine, "It's hardly necessary to
swap meet, Crosby says to look for a SOish puters are dumber than dogs and nothing like 'anthropomorphize' the microprocessor to
man with a gray cardigan, black jeans, a people. In a draft of a mission statement for recognize the trait it most shares with human-
strawberry-red fanny pack, and two steel the museum, he says he wants to dispel the ity - a rapacious and half-blind destiny to flow
crutches. With particulars like that, it doesn't myth that computers can think like humans, into any niche that might accommodate it,
take much work to spot him in the crowd. or that artificial intelligence approaches any- nudging any number of applecarts into chaos
Crosby is flanked by two young hipsters, just thing like human reason. on the way." __ _

DaD W I RED J UL Y 1 997

T Ii I: N I: T Z I: N Earlier this year, Thailand seemed to be on There were two types of policy changes.
the brink of a Mexico-style financial crisis, The first was to try to prevent crises from
kind of market-based model that
... 56 and lots of people in government and in happening, and the other was to deal with
developing countries were adopting. the markets were watching it very closely. them if they happened. In terms of trying
Mexico had become an exemplar of that Would a Thai meltdown - or a meltdown to prevent crises, the most important
model, and if Mexico had been allowed in Pakistan, or any other nation cited as thing we did was, with the IMF, to put in
to fail, you would have seen that model lithe next Mexico" - carry the same sys- place financial disclosure standards that
coming under political attack in India, temic risks? countries can voluntarily submit to. Dis-
in Russia, in China. Thailand's policies were on a path that, closure is at the heart of our own regula-
Rubin explained the crisis in terms of his without adjustments, could easily have tory system in many respects. If investors
"theory of interconnectedness."What does been unsustainable, and could have called in Mexico had understood, on a real-time
that mean? the health of its financial system into very basis, what was happening in Mexico, you
Capital markets are becoming more and serious question. But by making strong wouldn't have had a crisis, or at least not
more connected. There are many more and dramatic policy adjustments - in a crisis of the same magnitude. Establish-
investors involved with emerging mar- terms of budget policy, in terms of policy ing these disclosure standards can have
kets. There are much toward financial institu- a large effect. One advantage is that there's
more liquid markets in There is a tremendous tions - the Thai authorities more information for investors and they'll
emerging-markets secu- appear to have contained send warning signals. Equally important
rities. The Mexican cri- receptiveness to Western the situation. is that when you know you're going to have
sis came at a particular Mexico was special to to publish everything, the temptation to
moment when emerging economic thinking. It the United States because slip and slide through is reduced, and this
markets were a big but ofthe 2,000-mile border, acts as a discipline on policymakers not
new idea - when people would be a tragedy, just because it was a large share to use their reserves in irresponsible ways
had first started grouping of the total flow of capital or pursue inconsistent monetary and
them all together. Franldy, at the moment when into emerging markets at exchange-rate policies.
one of the consequences that time, and because it What about the other category - dealing
of the Mexican crisis is these ideas are gaining was a poster child of the with crises if and when they happen?
that people now take a Bretton Woods institutions There, the main policy change is something
more differentiated view currency, if there were to (the IMF and World Bank). called the "new agreements to borrow."
of emerging markets , I don't think if the problem This agreement brings about two dozen
looking at each of them be some kind of pullback. came in another emerging countries into an inner group of the inter-
separately. In the early market it would have those national monetary system that provides
stages of development of stock markets, three elements, and therefore I am inclined a supplemental fund - a spare fuel tank,
there is often a "nifty 50" or some such, to think the danger it would spread through- if you like - to help the IMF address a crisis,
and money goes into all of those stocks out the emerging-market sector is slightly ifit comes.
en masse and moves out of them en masse. less than it was at the time of the Mexican Given interconnectedness and globaliza-
But then, over time, there comes to be situation. Crises will happen, capital can tion, many people argue that governments
a more differentiated view. I think some- flow very quickly, spillovers are impor- don't possess the policy leverage they used
thing similar is happening in the global tant. But there has been a maturing of the to. Do you think multinational approaches
capital market. markets, and a reduction in those kinds to economic policy are becoming not just
Could there be another Mexico? of systemic risks. desirable but unavoidable?
The circumstances of Mexico were very After the bailout of Mexico, you and In some ways what the world economy is
special, but I certainly don't think we've your boss started working on a series going through now is a little bit like the
seen the last financial crisis in a develop- of policy changes at the international process the US went through in the early
ing country. The four most dangerous level- at the G-7Ievel, at the IMF and part of this century, when increasingly
words in markets are, "It's different this the World Bank level. Tell me about states had to cooperate, and increasingly
time." That said, one of the salutary effects the kinds of policies you put in place there were responsibilities that had to be
of the Mexican crisis was that it became to lessen systemic risk. taken on at the federal level. While there
an important object lesson in what can We've gone from a small-numbers prob- are important differences, that analogy
go wrong when there's loss of confidence lem to a large-numbers problem. In 1982, does say something about the direction in
from abroad and countries don't respond the chair of the Fed could get 20 major which the world is moving on everything
by taking the steps necessary to restore bankers in a room, remind them that he from environmental questions to questions
confidence. Policymakers around the is their regulator, and they'd work some- of financial regulation.
world have realized that if they don't thing out together. You can't do that with Not long ago, Wired did an interview
respect the pressures the capital markets thousands of separate holders of emerg- with former Citicorp CEO Walter Wriston
bring, they can get in serious trouble. ing-markets mutual funds. (liThe Future of Money," Wired 4.1 0, 186 ~

W I RED JU LY 1 997 Oaf)

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 N I: T Z I: N with foreign investment that has carried
with it large amounts of knowledge. They
... 182 page 140), who said something have been richly rewarded with invest-
provocative. He was talking about the ments in technology that have spread tech-
Eurodollar market, and he said, "The Euro- nological prowess to their citizens. And
markets are now the greatest mobile pool they've therefore been able to benefit more
of capital in the world. Money goes where directly from things that the globe knows.
it is wanted, and stays where it is well At the same time, bad policies are pun-
treated, and that's all she wrote. This annoys ished more severely than ever before,
government to no end. This huge pool of because capital can move out more easily.
'stateless money' is destabilizing. It can So I think that public policy is more potent,
move instantly, and it does." not less potent, than it used to be. I am
Is Wriston right? Is interconnectedness confident there are more Fed watchers
a force for instability and volatility, or the than there were 15 years ago, and that
opposite? suggests, in some sense, that what the
Your question poses a Fed does may be even more
dichotomy that's much The laws of economics important than it used to be,
too simple. The invention or at least as important as it
of superhighways made are more like the always has been. The range
transportation better and of sound policy choices may
safer, overall. But it cer- laws of physics than be more constricted, but
tainly also increased making those choices wisely
the risks of spectacular many people once is even more important than
~D~
smash-ups. I think the it used to be.
~~~ development of modern supposed. You can't Implicit in what you're saying
-><ipa, 35 financial markets and is the notion that there is
greater connectedness wish them away, and an agreed understanding
~,~0~~ is very much like the about what "good" economic
:lJ~Oh~ development ofthe super- they don't change policy is.
highway, or the inven- The laws of economics are
tion of the jet airplane. because of politics. more like the laws of physics
A positive force. A force than many people once sup-
that overall increases safety and stabil- posed. You can't wish them away, and they
ity. But a force that has its own fragility don't change because of politics. If govern-
associated with it, and one that carries ments print too much money, they will
certain risks. have inflation. If they expropriate - if they
Wriston went on to say that all of this is steal - they won't have foreign investment.
"annoying to governments because the If they lack well-developed financial mar-
market isn't in anyone place, geographi- kets, savers will earn low rates of return,
cally. It resides in cyberspace. London and will therefore stay away. These are the

b today is the center of the Euromarket

trading. But if the British put on reserve
realities that all countries, whatever their
culture, have to confront if they want to
~~~cP~ requirements or other controls, Bahrain is prosper in today's world.
~~.JiL~a.uf~ waiting. In just a couple of keystrokes the The rise of global capital markets has been
whole market could be gone. Technology the most profound change to the world
has overwhelmed public policy."True? economy in the past 20 years. The rise of
Policy is more potent for good or for ill emoney could be the most profound
than it used to be. Good policy is more change in the next 20. There's heated debate
richly rewarded because more capital about what government should do, if any-
comes in. That's why this is the first time thing, about it. How much regulation do
J('r"~~' in human history that you see significant you think is necessary?
~ ~ 1-5'oo-77,-F<A ND
numbers of countries growing at over In many ways there is a lot to learn from
.1[<:;;:; /f1{ CJ~.P:;
5 percent a year. Countries like those in the spread of credit cards, which are a pro-
73~ P, %i. .zo,-Ap,
East Asia - that have focused on invest- found innovation in the use of cash, in that
~) eo 8'07.04
ment, on exports, and on educating their basically you have the notion that you can
populations - have been richly rewarded give someone a plastic card and at 187 ~

08(1)
Colophon
THE NET ZEN The third area that the paper touches
on is the whole area of tax evasion. Just
Wired is designed and produced digitally.
Our thanks to the makers of the following:
... 1a6 the end of the day they will get as we've got a variety of requirements
Hardware credited money. Credit cards have raised and restrictions on the use of cash, we
Apple Power Macintosh, Power Computing, and UMAX important issues in the area of consumer will also need ways, as various electronic
SuperMac PPC personal computers; Po.werBooks and
protection and the area of fraud, and the funds transfers proliferate, to ensure that
PowerBook Duos; Apple Workgroup Servers; Agfa Select
Scan Plus, Arcus II, and Vision 35 scanners; Portrait Pivot credit card market is a much, much health- they don't become vehicles for escaping
1700 Displays; Radius Precision Color Displays; Sony ier market today because the Secret Service or avoiding tax. One of the things I've
monitors; Apple LaserWriter 16/600s and color 12/600s,
Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 5si and 4mvs, Tektronix 480
is involved in protecting against fraud; been struck by since I came to Treasury
color printer, Xerox Regal 5790 digital color copier/ because there are restrictions limiting is the link between financial issues and
printer; APS, MicroNet, and La Cie storage media; how much it can cost you if you lose your law enforcement issues. Our IRS commis-
MicroNet DDS-2 DAT drives and auto-loaders; Pinnacle
Micro Sierra 1.3-Gbyte MO drive; Sagem and Motorola
credit card. I think this is instructive, sioner, Peggy Richardson, likes to say it
BitSurfr Pro ISDN terminal adapters; US Robotics Courier, because it would have been easy to have took an accountant to catch AI Capone.
Motorola Power Series, and Global Village modems. either substantially underregulated or You've said that the great challenge of
Software
substantially overregulated credit card the global economy is to lift the develop-
Page layout and illustration: QuarkXPress; Adobe
Illustrator, Dimensions, Photoshop, and Streamline; technology, and denied people its benefits. ing world out of poverty - to enable it
Kai's Power Tools; Electric Image Animation System; Like most things in public policy, the truth to share in the prosperity of the West.
Macromedia Fontographer; WordPerfect.
Typography: Text: Adobe Myriad and Wiredbaum.
lies between the extremes. Separatists claim that globalization hurts
Heds: Adobe, FontShop, [T-261, House Industries, FUSE. Taxation is one of your academic special- those countries even more than it hurts
Graphics support: Adobe Premiere; Equilibrium Tech- ties, and it's an area you and others at workers here. I know you disagree with
nologies DeBabelizer.
Networking: Cisco routers and switches; Cisco, Ascend,
Treasury have been thinking about with that. Why?
and Farallon ISDN routers; Shiva LanRover/E Plus; SuperMac respect to ecash and e-commerce. You've The evidence lies in what's happened in
Splash; Farallon TImbuktu Pro; Eudora Pro and QuickMail; put together a report on this in prepara- the developing world over the past 25 years,
StarNine WebS tar; FreePPP and Apple Remote Access;
Dantz Retrospect.
tion for the discussions at the G-7 summit. and what's been happening in an even
Electronic prepress and printing by Quad/Graphics Inc., The first thing the report says is that we pronounced way over the past five. It's
Saratoga Springs, New York. are not going to introduce Internet taxes, only a generation ago that, in much of the
Color separations are made on a Linotype-Hell Chroma-
or treat the Internet as a golden goose to world, one out of every five babies was
Graph S3900 scanned directly to optical disk. Preliminary
color corrections are performed on a Scitex Rightouch be plucked. It does touch on three areas dying before the age of 5; that number is
and proofed on the paper stock using a Kodak Approval where the Internet requires us to think now one in ten or less. That's still much
digital color-proofing system. Additional electronic pre-
press is performed in-house at Wired using scans from
through traditional tax concepts, if we're too high, but it is vastly better. The elimi-
the Linotype-Hell ChromaGraph S39OO, Agfa SelectScan not going to impede the development of nation of all cancer in the United States
Plus, Arcus II, and Vision 35 scanners, and Kodak PhotoCD. this technology. One is the definition of would increase life expectancy by about
Composed pages are converted to PostScript through a
PS2 and translated into Scitex language using software
property. In traditional economic thinking two years; progress has been made in the
version 4.12. RIP'd files are sent to the Scitex Prism a work- there is a very strong difference between developing world that has increased life
stations. Composed digital proofs are submitted for final a tangible good and an intangible property expectancy by nine years in the last gener-
approval. Final graphic images and text are electronically
imposed using a Creo Thermal Platesetter 3244. Printed on which you can acquire royalties. When ation. There are enormous problems, but
on multiple Heidelberg Harris M-1 OOOB web presses. you think about software, there's nothing progress is being made, and it's being
Printed on paper from Blandin and Repap/Mldtec. importantly different about a diskette ver- made more rapidly in places where mar-
Cover: 80# Lithofect Plus Dull Cover.
Text: 40# Lithobrite Low Glare.
sus a program that is downloaded through ket principles are being adopted. Compare
This Issue was brought to you by: a modem. In each case it's really the infor- South Korea and North Korea. Compare
Def Leppard, Pyromania; Bergamot Station; Drifting Clouds; mation content that's crucial. Designing western Germany and eastern Germany.
FT.com's coverage of the British election results; Monozine;
appropriate rules that can maintain neu- These are as good a pair of controlled
Piraat ale; Beverly Hills 90210; deleting 140 emails without
reading them; Violent Onsen Geisha, Violent Onsen Geisha; trality in that situation is essential. experiments that the science of political
Luna, Pup Tent; The LoveLodge; edamame; Sarah Vaughan; The second area is the question of inter- economy will ever have, and the results are
Eightball #18; Rainer Maria Rilke; onion bagels with cream
national taxation - taxation where more in, and they are clear, and they are surpris-
cheese and tomatoes; a yellow card; The Kentucky Derby;
Sling Blade; magic mushrooms; What's Bred in the Bone, than one jurisdiction is involved. Cyber- ing to a large number of people who in
by Robertson Davies; the thought of beating Danny up space resides in no one country, so you 1975 would have regarded the outcome as
Eldridge Grade; Digital Mosaics, by Steven Holtzman; Beth
Orton, Trailer Park; Another Country, by James Baldwin;
have to design appropriate tax concepts. very much in doubt. John Kennedy, for one,
and despite muddle-headed applications of chaos theory. What we favor are approaches that are believed as president that the Soviet Union
Wired, July 1997.Volume 5,Issue Number 7. residence-based, because with residence- would surpass the United States economi-
Wired (lSSN 1059-1028) is published monthly by Wired
based approaches you know who gets the cally within the 20th century.
Ventures Inc., 520 Third Street, Fourth Floor, San Francisco,
CA 94107. Subscription rates for US and possessions are income and you know where they reside. We have learned great lessons. It's a long
US$39.95 for 12 issues, $71 for 24 issues. Periodicals post- So one of the things being discussed in the way from the end of economics, but there
age paid at San Francisco, CA 94107, and at additional
mailing offices.
international forum is, with intellectual is much that we know, and what we know
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Wired, 520 Third property transferred from one country to carries with it staggering potential for
Street, Fourth Floor, San Francisco, CA 94107. another, how the profits should be taxed. human emancipation. __ _

DaD W I RED JULY 1 997

NEGROPONTE
Message 49:
Date: 7.1.97
From: <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: Digital Obesity
Recently, I've been forced to look for new My adult and professional life has been own way with vituperous rhetoric about
hardware and software and have since spent trying to make computers easier to how the NC will obsolesce the PC and
been suffering the indignity of updating use, starting as far back as 1965.ln those how Microsoft's evil empire will thus be
myself. I cannot believe that manufacturers early days, people thought only sissies crushed. Bill, for his part, had dismissed
have gone so wildly astray while I wasn't needed graphics. In 1972, when we devoted the NC with equal bravado until recently,
looking - complexity is out of control. 256K to storing images, most people wrote when he jumped on the bandwagon with
I have spent much of my time in front it off as just another indecency and MIT arro- the Windows Terminal.
of a keyboard and display in the past 30 gance. Why would anybody in their right The sad fact is, NC or Pc, they are both
years. People have joked about my depen- mind commit so much memory to the icing, wrong - dead wrong. But you and I are
dence on email since 1970, and older flight not the cake? going to do the dying for a while. We sud-
attendants remember seeing me using a Three decades later, we find a generation denly have no choice.
laptop since 1979.ln fact, I don't know any- of kids who count memory not in Ks, but in The world does not want a PC or an NC,
one more wired than me in his or her daily Ms (and soon Gs). This is actually quite won - but an SC - a scalable computer. In short,
life. This is my way of saying I'm no piker. derful, but look at what we are using it for. this is a modular machine that can be as
But computers can be like ski boots. The interface hasn't fundamentally changed simple as pie (and not cost much more) -
Old-timers are prone to keep their well- since the introduction of the Macintosh as well as being able to grow from low-cost
worn and comfortable equipment. Upgrad- more than a decade ago. It's just harder to box to high-end supercomputer. Person-
ing to the newest boot styles each year use and obscenely obese. Someone needs ally, I am most interested in the low end of
would raise hell w ith one's feet. Likewise, a wake-up call. this sca le.
Why? Because there is no room for Win-
dows 95 in Africa. Many other parts of the
The world does not want a PC or an NC, world also need affordable computing.
but an Sc. A scalable computer I always thought this was a different prob-
lem from the one plaguing me. But suddenly
that can grow from low-cost box I realize that even with so much of MIT's
computing talent at my disposal and no
to high-end supercomputer. care whatsoever for what things cost, I am
no better off than peasants in Pakistan
I am old-fashioned in my digital ways. As a longtime devotee of Apple com- confronted with their very first computer.
I don't even use an email program but ride puters with a dozen active Macs currently Today's machines are just too complex to
bareback on Un ix instead. in my life, I find myself extremely frustrated be accessible.
But inevitably, there comes a time when with the latest models. The little computer But what is there to do about it - other
those favorite, laced leather boots need that greets you with a smiling face on start- than bitch? Is it time for a strike or a users'
to be exchanged for a new pair. That time up has become so complex that a Mac is cartel? You bet it is. Whoever is guiding
arrived in early 1997, and the new, modern now no simpler to use than a Wintel machine. those young folks making the operating
digital headaches I discovered still haven't So, like many, I decided it was time to system and applications of tomorrow
subsided. Mind you, I'm lucky. I have the switch platforms. should put his or her foot down . It is time
full and generous support of some of MIT's I made my first foray into Windows two to lose weight. Stop making software that
finest technical staff at my disposal. I won- months ago and was so appalled that I options you to death and start delivering
der who the rest of society turns to. raced back to the Macintosh like someone simple, easy-to-use apps. The stuff you
returning to a smelly bus after trying the write is written by geeks, for geeks; why
Overweight software newer subway system. I am amazed that not try writing something for the rest of
The problem displays itself as featuritis so many people use Windows 95 without the world?
and bloated software systems. I am fond complaint. I guess there is a grin-and-bear-it An interim solution or holding pattern
of quipping about how every time Andy attitude because THERE IS NOTH ING ELSE. might be to eschew those beastly apps and
makes a faster processor, Bill uses more Yes, I am yelling. recommend beginners to the Internet-
of it. Turns out it's not so funny. Have you through an online system like AT&T World-
looked at the size and complexity of Micro- Not PC or NC, but SC Net. But when I went to install it myself,
soft Word recently? People constantly ask what I think of the the instructions' first words, printed right
Outrageous. And each successive version network computer. One result of that ques- on the CD-ROM, were: "Turn off the virus-
has gotten worse. It's to the point where tioning is the appearance of headlines like protection software using the extensions
most programs are almost unusable and "Negroponte calls Ellison a nutcake." Of manager."What the hell does that mean to
run slower than what I used a decade ago. course, the reporter forgot to quote what Mom and Dad? Then, perhaps out of spite,
What is wrong w ith you Redmond folk? followed:"in the best sense of the word." the installer crashed my system . • • •
Maybe you'll learn something about ease Anything that makes our digital lives sim-
of use from your recent purchase:WebTV. pler is welcome. Larry Ellison gets in his Next Issue: RF Helps Marriage

WIRED JULY 1997 08 Ii)

The 1997 Celica

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