By Paul Ford
1 interval from 24 Mar 2001 (Chinks Definitional Lawlessness)
10:33 am
Ever day I remind myself that punditry is the road to intellectual ruin. There's a half-written unpublished dialogue between
myself and Scott Rahin where Scott ties me to a chair and asks me questions about the Web and techno-culture, and when I start
responding in pundit-fashion, he electrocutes me.
"So, Paul, what do you think about Napster?"
"Well, the whole P2P thing really shows us some essential BRRHRHZZZZT AUUUGH."
"Paul?"
"Uh, uh, honestly, I don't know. Our relationship with technology springs from basic, elemental human motives, and we don't
really understand /those/ yet, so it's stupid to pontificate on peer-to-peer. It's all just instinct until we do our homework."
"Good. And how about Open Source?"
"Well, Open Source, that's really had quite a--ZZZZZZLLLT oh oh augh. Okay, okay. To understand Open Source requires a much
more cogent and complete understanding of the macro-economics related to intellectual property than I possess."
"Much better."
And on and on....
PEEK
Ftrain.com is the website of Paul Ford and his pseudonyms. It is showing its age. I'm rewriting the code but it's taking some
time.
FACEBOOK
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TWITTER
You will regret following me on Twitter here.
EMAIL
About the author: I've been running this website from 1997. For a living I write stories and essays, program computers, edit
things, and help people launch online publications. (LinkedIn). I wrote a novel. I was an editor at Harper's Magazine for five years; then I was a Contributing Editor; now I am a free agent. I was also on NPR's All Things Considered for a while. I still write for The Morning News, and some other places.
If you have any questions for me, I am very accessible by email. You can email me at ford@ftrain.com and ask me things and I will try to answer. Especially if you want to clarify something or write something critical. I am
glad to clarify things so that you can disagree more effectively.
POKE
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Contact
© 1974-2011 Paul Ford
Recent
@20, by Paul Ford.
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