Canada and most European countries are far ahead of us in terms of liberating and socializing new technologies. France had widespread ISDN in the mid to late 1970's. The U.S. is still living in the dark ages of Rockefeller capitalism. Many other countries know better.
Hmm - and you know what the really irritating thing is - here on the shallow side of the pond we could have had high-bandwidth cheap connections (cheap) to every house in Britain if the monopolies commision (or whatever it was called back then) hadn't refused BT the license.
Ideally politicans are supposed to be people who know that one of the functions of the government is to do the things the majority want while preserving the rights of the minorities. I know it doesn't really happen (see ten commandments in the schools), but if we go to allowing everyone to vote on the issues, then we eliminate this step.
I agree with both points of view, but then I'm not a politition:)
However, the issue as I see it isn't the necessity of polititions, I can't see them dissappearing, but whether the polititions will ever be able to completely support the net. We're down to the old net for business vs. net for academia/it's own sake arguement again I suppose...
Surely the idea of a e-politition is somewhat absurd, given that the nature of the net is to transcend the nation state rather than promote it?
OK, a politition with enough commen sense to see thw net for what it is, and maybe even understand the problems it might hold is a nice idea, it seems unlikely to happen. After all, this is a 'semi-regulated anarchy' we're in here - or, as I've heard recently, the ultimate democracy. This seems to rule out the need for a 'Web Presedent'
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Hmm - and you know what the really irritating thing is - here on the shallow side of the pond we could have had high-bandwidth cheap connections (cheap) to every house in Britain if the monopolies commision (or whatever it was called back then) hadn't refused BT the license.
Oh well - it's too early to be really bitter :)
MarkIdeally politicans are supposed to be people who know that one of the functions of the government is to do the things the majority want while preserving the rights of the minorities. I know it doesn't really happen (see ten commandments in the schools), but if we go to allowing everyone to vote on the issues, then we eliminate this step.
I agree with both points of view, but then I'm not a politition :)
However, the issue as I see it isn't the necessity of polititions, I can't see them dissappearing, but whether the polititions will ever be able to completely support the net. We're down to the old net for business vs. net for academia/it's own sake arguement again I suppose...
Mark
Surely the idea of a e-politition is somewhat absurd, given that the nature of the net is to transcend the nation state rather than promote it?
OK, a politition with enough commen sense to see thw net for what it is, and maybe even understand the problems it might hold is a nice idea, it seems unlikely to happen. After all, this is a 'semi-regulated anarchy' we're in here - or, as I've heard recently, the ultimate democracy. This seems to rule out the need for a 'Web Presedent'
Mark