SILICON SOAPWARE wafting your way along the slipstreams of the Info Highway from Bubbles = Tom Digby = bubbles@well.sf.ca.us http://www.well.com/user/bubbles/ Issue #61 New Moon of January 6, 2000 Contents copyright 2000 by Thomas G. Digby, with a liberal definition of "fair use". In other words, feel free to quote excerpts elsewhere (with proper attribution), post the entire zine (verbatim, including this notice) on other boards that don't charge specifically for reading the zine, link my Web page, and so on, but if something from here forms a substantial part of something you make money from, it's only fair that I get a cut of the profits. Silicon Soapware is available via email with or without reader feedback. If you don't want to read about the mechanics of this, skip down to the row of asterisks (****). 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I do that one manually. ********************* 2000 doesn't feel much different from 1999. I guess it's a case of "Whenever you go, then you are." Are we running out of Future? When I was a child, there were a number of dates that would be The Future: 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, and 2000. But there were no magic numbers after 2000. 2010, for example, doesn't have the same fascination that 1990 did. 2001 may be the official start of the century, but it has a rather humdrum "party's over" feel to it. There are some dates coming up that make interesting character strings, such as Groundhog Day two years from now, 02/02/2002, but those are largely devoid of emotion. Sure, there are still things to look forward to: Project milestones at work, science fiction conventions, parties, and all the rest. But there's no longer a magic "The Future". ********************* I was reminded of a news item about how "2000" in product names has suddenly become outmoded. Same with "Twentieth Century". I could see the latter eventually coming back as a nostalgia thing, but not for a while yet. So maybe along about 2030 or 2040 Amtrak will start running the Twentieth Century Limited again, this time as a nostalgia trip? Their ads might have Fifties rock 'n' roll music mixed in with Thirties and Forties swing and Sixties psychedelic rock, and all that kind of thing. But there'll probably be no mention of racial segregation and Cold War fears and other less pleasant aspects of those bygone times. ********************* Some of us at a New Year's party were laughing at a tabloid (Weekly World News) full of dire predictions for y2k: "All banks will fail!" "Food supplies will be depleted!" "The stock market will crash!" "Electricity will be cut off!" "Vehicles using computer chips will stop dead!" And so on. And then on August 11, 2000, the Earth will fall into a black hole. In other issues of that tabloid we learn that by the time Earth falls into the black hole in August it will have already been destroyed by a collision with a giant comet or asteroid, and that sometime after those two destructions of Earth mankind will be wiped out by a plague. In addition, the Rapture (as foretold in the book of Revelation) will happen two or three times, but has already happened (with photographic proof) back in 1947. Copies of this publication have now and then been left in the lunch area at work, and people there are also amused by them. I'm tempted to start a pool on how many times the world will end within the next year or so. I'd be betting on Zero, although One could be a possibility. Higher numbers would seem much less likely. If I do start such a pool I probably won't take monetary bets, because of the practical difficulties of collecting money that no longer exists from people no longer alive, especially if there's no longer anything to buy. ********************* I somehow got to thinking of some gov't conspiracy to discourage amateur astronomy because there's an asteroid or something on the way to hit us and the gov't doesn't want anybody who's not already sworn to secrecy to spot it. Or maybe it's an alien ship orbiting, or something. In any case the astronomical Establishment is keeping it quiet, but there's a possibility that some amateur stargazer will spot it and blab. So they're getting cities to put up more street lights, and police are clamping down on "loitering" and "suspicious behavior" out in the country, and so on, to make it harder to set up telescopes out where it's dark enough to see such things. Elsewhere I saw a report that the gov't approached some prominent professional astronomer with a request to sit on any discovery of impending asteroid impact until after the gov't has had a chance to decide what to do about it. No dice. He would, however, be glad to notify the gov't along with everybody else. This person was approached because he was "the person" who would calculate orbits of new comets and such. But is there really only one such person? What with computers nowadays, I would think software for that would be widely available to amateurs. If it isn't, perhaps it should be, unless it's too complex for even today's home computers. ********************* Somebody has a Web page about how to make aluminum hats to ward off mind- control rays. I'm not sure if the guy really believes this stuff, or if it's just a parody. You never know nowadays. http://members.tripod.com/~zoam/afdb.html That may have inspired an X-Files dream. I was watching Mulder investigate a building on what seemed to be a military base. But once he was inside for a while he started sabotaging the investigation. He finally figured out there was some sort of mind- control thing going on, and if you stayed in the building more than a certain amount of time it would start to take you over and you would be working for the other side, whoever or whatever that was. So then they set up remote video surveillance cameras inside the building so further work could be monitored from a safe distance, taking care to do the installation work in short sessions so the installers wouldn't be taken over. From there they went on to look for the actual source of the problem. Did they find it? I think I woke up before it ended. ********************* A thought coming out of the shower: Some phone company acquiring a Psychic Hotline company so customers don't have to call when they have a problem. The staff will already Know, and will also know when the person will be home. Sometimes the first hint of trouble the customer gets is the knock on the door... ********************* There was something in the news about a pro baseball player getting into trouble for making disparaging remarks about foreigners, various racial groups, and gay people. Apparently that's enough of a no-no that they've ordered psychological evaluation and are considering possible disciplinary action. Whatever happened to Free Speech? I think it depends on whether his job is just to score runs for his team and help prevent the other team from scoring, or whether part of it is to stand there on stage while millions of children say "I want to be like him when I grow up." If it's the former, then his opinions are none of anybody else's business. If it's the latter, then it's definitely malfeasance in office to say racist and sexist things where they can come to public attention. It's like being Pope or President or a school teacher, in a sense always on the job 24 hours a day. In that case, why wasn't he screened out for Bad Attitudes before he even got near a playing field in the first place? ********************* I just noticed that in an earlier draft when I didn't have the paper handy and didn't know for sure what sport this person was in, I was using football imagery. In a way that's appropriate, since football metaphors get used all the time in work situations in general. So even if his game was baseball or hockey or bobsled racing, you could still speak of him "carrying the ball" in the figurative sense of helping his team win. ********************* And I'm reminded of something else. You now and then hear of people seemingly proud to be ignorant of something like math or science or computers. We notice it and remark on it in terms of "What's the world coming to?" and wonder why those people feel that way. I may have some ideas. I've caught myself doing it in regards to things like pro sports and prime-time TV programming, and I think it's an "Us vs Them" thing. For me, pro sports are "Them" so I try to distance myself from them by advertising ignorance of things like who the big-name players are. And since I watch hardly any TV I'll also loudly proclaim my ignorance of the personal affairs (or even the identity) of whoever's starring in the latest new hit series. Again, stereotype couch-potato celebrity-worshiping TV-watchers are Them. If that theory is right there are a large number of people to whom math and science and computer literacy and perhaps anything labeled as "intellectual" are Them and thereby to be shunned. If that's the case, can or should anything be done about it? Don't people have as much right to shun math and science and computers as I do to shun pro sports and pop-culture celebrities? I think the point is ability to function in society. Shunning sports just gets you a different set of friends, while shunning computers gets you out of much of the job market. So for that reason attitudes toward such things as math and computers probably should be of considerable concern to society in general. ********************* I just had another round-number not-so-young birthday, and it seems to have triggered a little soul-searching. And it reminded me of this: Once Around Discontent Like a bird that's taken wing On a morning in the spring When the dew is on the grass and on the flowers, On the road he's runnin' free -- People, places, things to see, With the sunshine only sometimes mixed with showers. Showers? Bein' homeless is a pain By a roadside in the rain When a family's only something to remember. Pass another lonely town -- Thinks he should've settled down With a girl he met in Nashville last December. December? Family gathered round the tree, What a happy sight to see, With the children knowin' Santa comes tomorrow. Father thanks the Lord above For the cheerful warmth and love And protection from the rain and pain and sorrow. Sorrow? Only yesterday it seems He had bright and shining dreams Of a future filled with wealth and fame and power. But he somehow missed his chance, Didn't even get a glance At the view from some Manhattan penthouse tower. Tower? On the fifty-seventh floor With a title on the door He's the leader of a mighty corporation. Lunch at Antoine's French Cuisine Via chauffeured limousine While he dreams about an overdue vacation. Vacation? Not a chance to get away From the pressures ev'ry day, From the voices crying "Throw some money my way!" But he thinks he might rebel, Tell them all to go to Hell, And go looking for his life along the highway. Highway? Like a bird that's taken wing On a morning in the spring When the dew is on the grass and on the flowers, On the road he's runnin' free -- People, places, things to see, With the sunshine only sometimes mixed with showers. Thomas G. Digby written 1425 hr 12/18/76 entered 2025 hr 3/29/92 -- END --