X-Message-Number: 14511
From: "George Smith" <>
References: <>
Subject: Confessions of a bandwidth pirate
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 13:28:46 -0700

On conserving bandwidth:

During the Nixon "energy crisis" in the seventies, I always rode the
elevator.

That was because the government posted signs urging me to "save energy" and
climb stairs.

I viewed my actions as that of a personally satisfying but meaningless act
of energy piracy.

Now, in the year 2000, gas lines have formed in Europe and oil is at all
time highs anyway.

Probably all my fault for using the elevator in the sixties!

I guess I have always been something of a rebel.

The internet bandwidth nonsense will continue to receive my undivided
derision.

As fiber optics are laid on the railroad beds and wireless satellite
communications improve, driven by massive billions of dollars, the bandwidth
will increase.

SIMILAR group think positions which feel that "your vote really counts" fail
on a simple math test.  One vote counts as "one"... not two or more (unless
you're from Chicago, perhaps).  One may count but not for very damned much
compared to millions or billions.

Eventually this "conserve the bandwidth" baloney will be bypassed.

Too much money is at stake for any other outcome.

So those of you who wish to use the stairs and abbreviate your phrases
AYSTBSIID (as you seem to be so involved in doing) will be meaningfully
unaffected by my failure to desert the current language for communication as
it is conducted everywhere else.

Since English is now the international language of choice (much as French
was in the era of diplomacy), I hope to continue to use English as it is and
avoid jargon dominated dialects.  WHICH IS WHY I USE CAPS FOR EMPHASIS.
Impoverished visual mediums call for CAPS because bold and italics and
underlining are not readily available... yet.  Just as the telegraph was
used so much until the telephone came on line.

I've had enough of these damned TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms)!  I only hope
that someone in the CIA, NSA, FBI or IRS does something soon to stop this
insanity!

By the way, if you really and truly want to conserve bandwidth, use E-prime
for clear communications.  E-prime is the use of English without the use of
the verb "to be".  E-prime tends to reduce the avalanche of miscommunication
that dominates our reifying language as used currently.

More time and words are wasted on attacking and defending communications
based on the verb "to be" than could ever be used up in deleting the
confusing little suckers in the first place.

For example, writing, "YOU ARE WRONG" can result in many, many words going
back and forth as primate defends primate territory as opposed to writing,
"THE IDEA YOU EXPRESSED HAS THE FOLLOWING ERRORS...".

But, frankly, I really don't care about the wasted words and the convoluted
efforts at communication.  AATIRNMAOUCDAI (after all, there is nothing
meaningful any of us can do about it).  And it will be solved by the
expansion through big bucks anyway.

ARRRRR!  (arrrrrr!)

On the Cryonet's purpose.

The people we meet here who are involved with cryonics we may get to know
very well over the next few hundred years.

If the current purpose of the Cryonet is limited to data exchange only, then
it is time for evolution.

So if sharing meaningful speculations is "off topic", it needs to become "on
topic".

Going to other sites totally dominated by deathist attitudes will not
strengthen our community.

That's how I see it.

George "Long John" Smith
ARRRRR!

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