CMC Magazine October 1, 1995 / Page 10

BOOK EXCERPT

The Paradox of Intelligence and Pathology

"The Net: an instrument of rationalization erected upon an inconceivably complex foundation of computerized logic--an inexhaustible fount of lucid `emergent order.' Or, the Net: madhouse, bizarre Underground, scene of flame wars and psycholpathological acting out, universal red-light district. `You need a chapter on sex,' I was told by one reviewer of an early draft of this book; and he was right, for pornography and erotica drive a substantial percentage of Net traffic.

"The Net: a nearly infinite repository of human experience converted into objective data and information--a universal database supporting all future advances in knowledge and economic productivity. Or, the Net: perfected gossip mill; means for spreading rumors with lightning rapidity; universal source of meanings reduced to a lowest common denominator; ocean of dubious information from which I filter my own, tiny and arbitrary rivulet, mostly of unknown origin."

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