Date: Sat, 21 Aug 93 15:32:31 PDT

Date: Sat, 21 Aug 93 15:32:31 PDT
Reply-To: <[email protected]>
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From: [email protected] (obqvrf qernzf naq grpuabybtvrf)
To: [email protected] (SURFPUNK Technical Journal)
Subject: [surfpunk-0095] SOURCES: PERFORATIONS 5; Drum; SCREAM BABY; Legal Net News

@ I've lost 10 minutes of work because of the nVIR virus
@ on the copy of CricketGraph I once used. I lost one
@ whole week of work (2400 minutes) helping figure out
@ why Windows, Novell, and Dr Dos wouldn't work
@ together. Files were lost, machines crashed, device
@ drivers kept stomping one another. The problems were
@ fixed in bug patches from the manufacturers.
@
@ -- Karl Lui Barrus <[email protected]>
@ [from a long cypherpunks posting]

You may remember, I have great respect for the Public Domain group in
Atlant that publishes PERFORATIONS. Drum is new to me. I've enjoyed
past issues of SCREAM BABY; the evolution of their copyright policy is
a major thread, if not the raison d'etre, for the zine. Legal Net News
is nicely done, and references a lot of other internet resources. -- strick
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

From: Mike Mitten <[email protected]>

From: Chea Prince <cprince>

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: PERFORATIONS 5, "bodies, dreams & technologies"

The word "virtual" has been the subject of such a large degree of hype
that it is difficult to use the term without cringing at the
trendiness of its sound, and yet, despite its status as the premier
buzzword of the nineties, it continues to suggest a relationship
between consciousness and electronic space that is rich and
descriptive. Just beneath the term's slick corporate gloss is a leaky
matrix of nested meanings that invoke key dimensions of the emerging
culture of the 21st century: artificiality, simulation,
representation, mimesis, prosthesis, multi-dimensionality,
multiplicity, hyperness, velocity, otherness, the mechanical, the
machinic, high technology, and, by extension, digitalization, fractal
scaling, transpositionality, and networking.

A close reading of this complex system of semiotic flows reveals a
thoroughly mapped, but unstable network of faults along which the
domains of the human and the machine are collapsing into each other
with increasing speed. Taken together these faults constitute the
"new edge" of U.S. culture where separate consciousnesses are
continually merging into an ever more sexed, violent, hallucinogenic,
and media-saturated conflation of mindscapes. This evolving,
networked collectivity is marked by a growing obsession with
the traces of the transformation of the human into the cyborg, and
seems enthralled by recycled transfiguration myths often overwritten on
the electronic skin of the textual/cultural body with the neon intensity
of transient, kaleidoscopic tattoos. Easily distracted, the
individual elements of the collective gaze hypnotically surf available
information channels grabbing frames in real-time from first one, then
another, of the latest technetronic updates to the new suit of
animated tribal scarrings.

Fixation on new and improved, bigger and better, longer-living bodies
facillitates acceptance of devices first constructed as attachments to
the body, then redesigned for incorporation into the body via
implantation, or nerve/machine integration (e.g., artificial hearts,
prosthetic limbs, hearing aids, etc.), as a welcome blurring of the
boundary between humans and machines. As the boundary becomes more
blurred, the domains begin to blend. It is easy to imagine a future
in which implantation follows a (plastic) surgical model in which purely
corrective measures become the foundation for supplemental, elective
procedures.

With the aid of future developments in present technologies--artificial
intelligence, bio-chips, synthetic neurons, nanotechnology, artificial life--
the body's rate of absorption of the machine will only increase causing rapid
advancements in cyborgization. How will these fields re-define
already complicated issues of embodiment? How will cyborgization
affect changes in social/cultural orientations toward real and virtual
phenomena? Which is the metaphor--the body or the machine?

PERFORATIONS 5, "bodies, dreams & technologies", will collect and assemble
memories, stories and fantasies exploring the relationship between the human
and the machine, and the impact of this relationship on the creation of
present and near-future cultures. We value noise, chaos, fluxus, anarchy,
dada-streams, nonhierarchalization, improvisation, conflict, discontinuity,
experimentation, invention and wild speculation. (We also tolerate more
reasonned presentations as long as they avoid being too priggish.) We are
looking for material--drawings, photography, text, hypertext, computer
graphics, animation, audio and video--that is explicitly experimental in
the approach taken toward these themes.

ALL SUBMITTALS SHOULD INCLUDE:
the author(s) name address and phone number

ADDRESS INQUIRIES AND SUBMISSIONS TO:

PERFORATIONS 5
c/o Public Domain, Inc.
P.O. Box 8899
Atlanta, Georgia, USA 30306-0899

NOTE: SUBMISSION MATERIALS ARE NOT RETURNABLE UNLESS ACCOMPANIED BY A
SASE.

CONTACT:

Chea Prince 404.633.8022
Anne Balsamo 404.894.8923
Robert Cheatham 404.377.5114
or Email queries to [email protected]

PERFORATIONS is a publication of Public Domain, Inc., an Atlanta based
non-profit arts organization. Partial funding of PERFORATIONS is provided
by the Fulton County Arts Council, corporate and individual sponsors.

________________________________________________________________________

To: [email protected] (Squiggle Rot Thirteen ;)
From: Justin Mason <[email protected]>
Subject: Scream Baby -- The Hum Drum Issue
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1993 17:23:42 BST

In case you don't know, Scream Baby is the output of one
BladeX, based somewhere in Texas. I think a few SB backissues
are to be found in the eff.org gopher area; they're very
intermittent, but they're very cool stuff, one of the best
e-zines on this here net... just hard to get. Check out the
licensing! -- justin.

[forwarded from FringeWare -- see below for sub details]

From: [email protected] (R. Patrick Jones)
Subject: Drum. Volume 1. Number 1.
Date: 22 May 1993 18:33:11 GMT

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=Drum= D we're talking about transfor-
edited by rpj R mation here, the line by line
grafik concept st. witch U by edit endless unrepentant
online translation doomboy M charge up and out through the
d self to society becoming as
special thanks: hipriestess - r large as society and enacting a
asexual guru of love - john b. u physiochemicalspiritual change
- brunette dreamr - kozmik tryb m so cataclysmic that it ruptures
- disciples of RAM - books & D all the old organs out and
co. - peirce & barb - doomboy - R regenerates raging.
m.t. capone - U
M our generation was raised with
xtra peace 2:: eris - yvonne s. d icons of bugs bunny, speed
- t. macneeley - annye camara r racer, battle of the planets
(dreams into action) - my folks u and now in our early twenties a
- mr. gabbard - judy y. - m presentation of a technological
D myth that touches the very core
xtra props: william lee - brain R of our spirit. within an age
cell possee - nova mob - pax to U where warfare is fought through
all! M the stamping over of under-
d developed countries; whipped up
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . r into a jihad fever to take oil,
u the lifeblood of our mechanical
m society. or perhaps warfare as
feature "acid house" music and D the assumption that there
on has been growing in europe ( R truly are no rules. planting
the united kingdom) and in some U bombs in baby carriages; in
called "rave" features synthesi M international flights, assuming
also been very popular in the g d that anyone who doesn't take a
number of years after its intro r side is expendable, that there
substance. it became illegal w u are no innocents left in the
that it caused permanent damage m world & that the object is to
research has failed to support D become terrifying technological
illegal, and strange stories ci R specters hiding out and using
causes the spinal cord to lique U the same guerrilla tactics that
stories, but both mda and mdma M the viet cong used. the same
some people snort them or (rare d tactics the revolutionary
intensifying their action and p r americans used in their war of
drugs with alcohol or other dep u independence.
lity or adverse effects. as se m
the pleasure of touching, but t D if revolution engenders the
with orgasm in both men and wom R emergence of a force that is
have been reported; they resemb U more repressive than the
almost identical to serotonin, M previous then it's that force
different hallucinogenic state d elemental that can't be
in ayahuasca, where it is combi r destroyed. which leaves one to
make the dmt orally active. in u conclude that this destruction
injected or smoked to manifest m of rule is impossible.
within seconds, and the trip la D
dose. one distinctive characte R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
tendency to produce visions of U
terence mckenna has written and M TOWARD THE INFINITE . . . .*
ordinary phenomenology of the d d + .. .* .
reports we have had from others r .. . . + . .. .. . +
"elf" contacts. mckenna was al u + .... . .. + . :. :
he called "visible language," o m .... + . : ...
colored modalities that have li D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
R
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . U once looped she could use them.
M surprisingly beautiful; the mel
10111001101.\ .| / 01011010000 d being into hybrid instruments.
001011000000.\.| /.001111110111 r the presence an underground str
0110010000111... 1011110100111 u
110000000111 / | \.100000100111 m know that the seven spheres mus
10100110000 / | .\.00101101001 D their seasons, one at a time, a
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R know that the four beasts of th
U iniate, each in their own time
=NOTES TOWARD A MANIFESTO= M ever to rise to the stars, and
d then a new age will come of ear
the fact that technology is r whole, and the waters will be a
here should never in any way u not been named. remember to pr
limit our soul and spirit. we m the family. the elder sign and
have within our grasp the D watcher too if they be slow. a
seedlings of machinations that R that time, for the blood will b
can alter the future of the U and will call them. beware of
homo sapiens. we must coalesce M cult of the dog, the cult of th
our apocalyptic surroundings d they are worshippers of the anc
into a unified myth to rescript r in for they have a formula of w
this rape of our souls. we u these cults are not strong, sav
have been molested not by m open up to them and unto their
technology but by the mentality D
behind it, which offers nothing R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
but a narrow faddish view of U
our consumed selves. we have M Rearrange these six matchsticks
been bred to be perfect para- d to make "nothing." No match-
sites, cogs in a machine that r sticks may be bent, broken or
gave us the persian gulf, h- u placed over each other.
bombs, vietnam, a.i.d.s., m
george bush, holes in the ozone D o o o o o o
& on & on ad nauseam. R | | | | | |
U | | | | | |
majik is the act of manipu- M | | | | | |
lating media, to wrap words, d
images, sounds, lectures & tv r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
into a whirlwind. to defeat u
the "rational" mind and teach m mescaline was isolated from pey
and re-educate humanity's D only naturally occurring psyche
collective unconscious. to R related drugs. throughout the
re-introduce ritual, to show U philosophers, and psychologists
the path of urban shamanism or M but there was no general demand
techno-paganism, to perform the d adrenaline a few artists with
Great Work. r revolution of the 1960s. then
u appear. however, since the dru
each piece, each artistic m many dealers sold lsd as mescal
endeavor is a spell which D needlelike white crystals; half
presents another petition, R drug may cause initial nausea,
another suit to mother nuit for U its effects last up to twelve h
a healing flood and a doorway M the whole cactus.
once again to angels & demons. d
to once again unify our minds r mdma (methylenedioxymethampheta
within our bodies, to transmute u a new drug, mdma (usually calle
the concept of being human into m mdm, and adam), gives the same
a glorious being filled with D hours instead of ten to twelve.
light. R action, it is gentler on the bo
U by mouth in reasonable doses (1
and to bring a final fuckin' M mdma rarely causes bad trips.
end to "civil"ization as we d an enhancer of empathy between
know it in seducing the goddess r counseling. in other circles i
to come back home. u reputation as a party drug, bei
m
"the price we pay for obtaining D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
information is scrambling up R
the world somewhere.... in our U . . .
study of statistical mechanics M . .
we learned it is not possible d . . .
to obtain information without r . . . . . .
increasing entropy" [cosmic u . ..
code] m . . . . .
D .
it is accepted that 90% of our R . . . . .. . .. . . . .
perceptions come via sight. we U . . .
seek visual overload to disrupt M . . . . . ..
that. information is the d . . . . . .
subatomic particle of our r . . . . .
perception- seek constructs u . . . . .
that divorce perceptions from m . . . .
actualities thereby making D . . . . . ..
divination easier to be R . . . . . . .
realized- our thinking patterns U . . .
are chemical and the specters M . . .
of "moral decency" & self d .
appointed vanguards of r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"reality" limit our chemical u
m processes via laws and "common
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D sense" doctrines- 20th century
R humyns are stunted in their
produces the most profoundly U mythmaking abilities due to
dmt is the active ingredient M these empirical constructs
h beta-carboline alkaloids to d which having done away with
ynthetic form, dmt must be r classical deities are left to
ects. when smoked, it comes on u make potholes of language or
4-30 minutes, depending on m reside in the arms of 18th and
of the tryptamines is their D 19th century morality- one is
unters with hon-human entities. R not allowed visions per se-
extensively on the extraord- U as sark says in [inspiration
rience. our experiences, plus M sandwich], "have wild imagin-
porate mckenna's descriptions d ings" which means see elvis in
first to report on a phenomenon r your revco if you like only
e puts it, "three-dimensional u convince @ least 2 others that
c content" m you did.
D
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
U
THIS YOUR SPACE- Leave notes, p M oems, xcetera, send on to
others- Drum. is not an isolate d d event but an ongoing process.
r
u "Slide your longhorn between these
m towers and pump up a guyser of joy
D juice! Ya-hoo buckaroo!"
R
U -- ad copy for "Texas Towers"
M Private Entertainment mailing

babybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybaby
babybaby yba aby byba abyb byba babybaby
babybaby bybabyba babybaby byb yba babybaby byb yba ba ba babybaby
babybaby yba babybaby yba aby yba ba ba babybaby
babybabybabyb yba babybaby byb yba babybaby byb yba ba ba babybaby
babybaby yba aby byb yba aby byb yba ba ba babybaby
babybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybaby

The Hum-Drum Issue
__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Cyberlicious <tm> | Editor : Blade X | "Did you know that wixer |
| No more PO BoX! | [email protected] | is German slang for a |
| No more BBS! | Neo-Wobblie Node # 269 | penis?" -- Pacoid |
|__________________________________________________________________________|

"With the advent of digital writing and digital text reproduction, will
literature -- and the culture based on respectful care for the word --
be eroded?"

Michael Heim, p. 3, "Electric Language: A
Philosophical Study of Word Processing", 1987.

SCREAM BABY POLICIES

"Some people just don't get it"

DISTRIBUTION : Permission is granted to freely re-distribute this
publication via digital means. You are allowed to, but not limited to,
forwarding copies to your cyber-buddies; posting to newsgroups, message
bases and mailing lists; making available for file transfer on ftp sites
and BBSs; and, <censored> the SPA, you can even copy that floppy. No
registration or shareware fees or any other charges by Cyberlicious <tm>
will apply to issues distributed in this fashion.

However, the license to create hard copy print-outs remains restricted.

Despite my previous protests, objections, and explicit denial of
permission, many have confessed to printing hard copy versions. So,
recognizing the indaubtable will of the people, I am amending the
restrictions......again. <*sigh*>

You may print hard copies of each issue of Scream Baby, if and
*ONLY* if an annual donation of $5 (or more) is made to an organization
that plants trees in your communites. In Austin, I endorse Tree Folks
/ 1710 Eva St. / Austin, TX 78704. You may send money here, if there is
no similar organization in your community.

A suitable substitute would be an organization which buys plots of South
American rain forests in order to create a preserve. Nothing else
qualifies. Donations to the charity-of-your-choice do not count, nor do
they negate you of your responsibilities under this legally binding
contract.

Just because I don't have any way of checking doesn't mean that the
God-of-your-choice ain't watching.

Contributions to Whale Watcher's Quarterly don't count either, no matter
how cute you think those dorsal fins look. The only reason I mention
them is to inform you that my cat Mao Tse-Teung, is now a fierce
protector of a large humpback whale named Fringe. I told Mao this was
ok, as long as Fringe didn't come to visit. We have the certificate
suitable for framing on our refrigerator door, for those who don't
believe.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

A subscription mailing list is available, so that readers may get copies
delivered *directly* to their e-mail box. To be added to the mailing list,
answer this essay question,

"What does the post-cyberpunk scene look like?"

Send answers (<20,000 words) to [email protected].

* * *

"The point about technology is that it has to be a function of some
imaginative life, otherwise it's just a tool, only a tool. Some of the
most boring people on the face of the earth are the people obsessed
with technology, the computer obsessive who wants to tell you what his
computer can do but doesn't really want to tell you what he can do with
his computer"

-- Clive Barker interview, May 1993 issue of Sin Magazine

* * *

An idea I've been kicking around is offering advice, tips, hints, and
maybe eventually a FAQ for those who write, publish, and produce
e-zinesters. Become an advocate for the scene, help people out, etc.
etc. Perhaps people can even learn from my mistakes, and avoid
repeating them.

TIPS for WANNA-BE E-zinesters

One of the first mistakes I made was that I started writing and
collecting material to be published in the first issue of Scream N
*me*me. What I should have done was write and collect material to be
placed in the *announcement*. I.e. "Hey, I'm starting a way new cool
e-zine that's better than the rest of this Internet slag heap; send me
submissions".

But no, I wasted my time actually doing stuff instead of just talking
about it. The inexperience of youth, I guess.

Some of you are now thinking, hey, I'd like to write an e-zine, but what
should I write about? Fret no more, here are some ideas/titles that you
are free to use!

"Music That No One Else But Me Listens To"
"I Hate Camille" (Paglia) [ala BID's I Hate Brenda newsletter]
"The Baroque Aesthetics of Mexican-American low-rider artmobiles"
"Hackers v. Crackers" -- the raging debate continues
"1001 Ways to Kill Rush Limbaugh"
"Why Everyone Else on the Internet Sucks"
"How to Make Big $$$$$ Exploiting the Internet"

Uh oh, that last one has just triggered a side rant, involving the issue
of privatizing the Internet. The future of the internet is "money
talks". Corporations and governments rule the world. So to all the
stuck pigs, whining crybabies, and academics accustomed to a lifestyle
sponsored by federal subsidy.........get a grip. The thing that grates
me most is this holy glorification of the net as some vital educational
tool that will save us from America's downward slide into ignorance,
decadence, and decay. I don't know if the phrase "signal-to-noise
ratio" means anything. I'm not quite sure which corner of cyberspace
these people have been hanging out on. But from what I can tell, most
people who use the Internet are JUST FUCKING AROUND!

Oh well, enough ediborial.

For now.

* * *

C: Are techno-nerds like cyber-punks?
B: Yeah, but aren't cyber-punks supposed to be cool?
C: In a geeky, Elvis Costello kinda way.

"Interview in Seattle"
Chris Estey and Bob Black
p. 230 _Friendly Fire_

* * *

FCGSSZ files

Frequently Claimed Gonna-Subscribe-Someday Zines

Ad Busters Quarterly
Ben Is Dead
Boing-Boing
Details (so sue me)
Fact Sheet Five
Gray Areas
Mondo 2000
SF Eye
Sin (no, this one I'm *really* gonna subscribe to someday)
Wired
Your Flesh

* * *

An issue of Scream Baby wouldn't be complete without some reviews.

These get the SBSOA (Scream Baby Seal Of Approval)

RESERVOIR DOGS -- best fucking movie....*ever*. Walked around like a
tough guy for 12 minutes going, fuck you, ya looking at me? yeah fuck
you, too. what, ya wanna piece of me? yeah fuck you. That the film
demands such intense and active participation by the viewer that you
*actually* become a cheap, yet professional, hit man. The film's most
violent scenes occur off-screen. For example, what Mr. Blonde did in
the jewelry store is never shown, but is created in your own mind based
on the other characters reactions. What would make professional
criminals coil in such disgust? *Bam* *Bam* *Bam* He's a fucking
psychopath.

Fuck you.

Where can I get one of those suits?

FRINGEWARE REVIEW -- One of my previous experiments was a WWIV message
base called the Cyberspace News Network, a collection of original texts
as well as documents appropriated from the Internet. Information was
mainly about the cyberscene, i.e., all that Mondo and Wired stuff.

Far as I'm concerned, the Fringeware mailing list is the Cyberspace News
Network of the cyberscene. Besides keeping me informed of what's going
on, and how I can participate in this that or the other, Don Webb,
regular contributor, is simply the *weirdest*, hippest thing I've seen
in a while. The guy ain't from this planet.

Subscribe now, [email protected]. [I've said that last
issue, so what ya waiting for, special engraved invitation?]

I was going to write all about the physical you can touch paper catalog,
but then remembered that I promised Paco an article for this issue and
then never turned it in.

I better go start now.
* * *

"The main things holding people back from doing amazing and interesting
things are lack of imagination and unjustifiable fear of authority
figures or of the opinions of other people. Realizing that most authority
figures and most other people really don't give a shit about you or what
you do blesses you with the freedom to do whatever you have the courage
to do."

-- John Trubee, p.28 of the Summer 1993 Gray Areas

d
r
u
m
So it's like I saw the Drum e-zi D
already experimented with my ver R
liked it enough to be able to st U
Rather than slag something I don M
I do. Does that make me weird? d
now? Andy Hawks....wish ya the r
crashed. Want all my cyberbuddi u
[email protected]. m
D
R
U
M
d
r
u
m
D
R
U
M
d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
r
u coming soon- --- ---
m letters from you --- ---
D more rants --- ---
R ht mak bathtub napalm -------
U --- ---
M RPJ/-ka- -------

________________________________________________________________________

To: [email protected]
From: Mail Server <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 93 11:23:59 CST6CDT
Subject: Subscription information

[ the LNN lists *lots* of other legal elists and sources. --strick ]

Thanks for subscribibg to Legal Net News.

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and into the future.

LNN is compiled and released approximately once
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To subscribe, send a message to <[email protected]>, with the
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The information contained in this Legal Net Newsletter is not to be
misconstrued as a bona fide legal document, nor is it to be taken
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"Legal Net News", "Legal Net Newsletter"
and the Legal Net News logo are
Copyright (c) 1993 Paul Ferguson -- All rights reserved.

Legal Net Newsletter may be freely copied and distributed in its entirety.

Legal Net News can be found at the following locations:

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Login as ANONYMOUS and use your net ID (for example: [email protected])
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E-mail submissions, comments and editorials to: [email protected]

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

The SURFPUNK Technical Journal is a dangerous multinational hacker zine
originating near BARRNET in the fashionable western arm of the northern
California matrix. Quantum Californians appear in one of two states,
spin surf or spin punk. Undetected, we are both, or might be neither.
________________________________________________________________________

Send postings to <[email protected]>,
subscription requests to <[email protected]>.
WWW Archive at ``http://www.acns.nwu.edu/surfpunk/''.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

one of the things i had wanted to do in the beginning
was for SURPUNK to merely "index" other lists ...
to hyperlink and crossreference other articles.
WWW and GOPHER do that with varying degrees of success,
but with the diverse SURFPUNK subscribers that isn't
possible via email (yet). MIME has the potential to help,
but again, the SURFPUNK readership in general doesn't have
MIME or the ability to ftp an External-Body block.

here Andy Hawks speaks of the problem I had hoped
SURFPUNK would help to solve, instead of make worse ;-)

-- strick

Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1993 11:49:30 -0600
From: andy <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: sub ezines futurec
To: Multiple recipients of list FUTUREC
<[email protected]>

[...excerpt...]

- the idea of metalists needs to be explored
more...a big bitch-n-moan i've had with the net
lately (as i continue to spend less and less time on
the piece of s---) is the now-dominating (in my mind
anyway) "dung pile" atmosphere....a lot of
newsgroups, elists, gopher and ftp sites seem to
overlap mroe and more than i've ever noticed in the
past, it never seems to stop....people keep
spreading the same shit all over the place...

here's a typical example....: a CFP related to
cyber-research gets posted to alt.cyberpunk,
sci.vorld [new meme, virtual world], mabe
comp.org.eff.talk and some other places...so, Joan
average FCer reads the same post maybe 6 times,
conceivably, in the same day...so then Joan goes to
reads er email and finds that three people have
forwarded the post to fc: "i saw this on alt.cp.."
"snagged this off sci.vorlds" "grepped through
alt.soc.futures and found this"... now Joan has
seen it 9 times...so then Joan goes to gopher for
similar stuph, and encounters thirty entries for it,
some on ftp.... now Joan decides to go over to the
WELL and MindVox, and finds the post has made it's
way over there in a few different places on each
site... Joan reads the rest of her email -- in her
private box, ehr friend Bob sent her a copy:
"thought you might wanna see this"...she finds it's
made it to a Fringeware post, a Surfpunks post,
maybe a library list or two....

i know this is a core aspect of the net,
decentralized spread of information, but I think
there's a big difference between decentralized
spread (kinda reminds me of "i can't believe it's
not butter" for some reason =) and and spreading too
far, wide, and thin...

this is the wrong direction to venture into, imho.
i don't know why it happens - i could easily guess
it's jsut an outcome or extension of too-subjective
environments is what it comes down to in the
end...it seems to me people feel they're filling a
hole with information, but they're not - they're
filling a pile. if you've seen it once, the hole is
filled...if you've seen it twice, you've built a
pile....

now if you take a decentralized atmosphere and try
and combine it all together to make a central
location for disseminating information (like having
all these zines on the fc list), you're jsut piling
shit on top of shit. if only information were a
true commodity...... then this wouldn't be a problem
in our self-oriented world .....

i really do worry about the possible end results of
the meta-* and surf-* approaches to e-information.
I think Surfpunks was, for some/most of us,
initially viewed as like this harmless neat
e-zine... but, i dunno now....it's dangerous...and a
lot of e-punks and info-punks see that word and
cheer, which i think is ignorant... surfpunks is
groovy and all...but...

here's a pretty easy analogy....there's a 7-11 on
every street corner....what in the fucking good is
building a mega-7-11 in the middle of iowa, kansas,
colorado, whatever? it's useless, so why waste
resources on building that mega-7-11 when you could
use them to build a regular 7-11 in africa, or
wherever else there isn't one where people want
one...

[...excerpt...]

_______._.__._.... . . . . . . ..._.__.____.... . .andy.