Birdsongs of the Mesozoic
What is this "Internet"? A long time ago, I was persuaded to take a flyer on a peculiar, computer-based service called "Prodigy". It was safe as milk, for it had all the economic muscle of the Sears, Roebuck company behind it. I plugged a galloping 1200 bps modem into my SE 30, loaded the proprietary software, and "logged on". What did I do with it? Mainly write emails and participate in bulletin boards. It was loaded with advertising, and the warlords of the service seemed to be spending a lot of their time snooping on our activities, and attempt to curtail activities that used bandwidth without delivering eyeballs. For instance, email and bulletin boards.
It was finally so oppressive that many of us fled to another dinosaur service called GEnie, and then we went our separate ways in rancor and disillusionment. What, I wonder, has become of that old gang of mine, of Varda Novick, Carlos Lavastida, and Marjorie Lazoff, MD? Wherefore art thou, Bryan Miller Rix? At least I still hear from my brother Bruce.
Things haven't changed much. The internet is once again a marketplace disguised as a public square; the controversialists who are quick to write, quick to anger, and slow to listen still dominate the discussion; and the most rational, moderate, and well-written post is always the one submitted after the thread has moved on. The pages don't seem to load any faster, either.
