4.0349 Responses: Poems, Autobiographies, Technology (3/38)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Thu, 2 Aug 90 10:31:51 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0349. Thursday, 2 Aug 1990.
(1) Date: Wed, 1 Aug 1990 9:13:06 GMT+0400 (9 lines)
From: Judy Koren <LBJUDY@VMSA.technion.ac.il>
Subject: 4.0329, the best part of a poem...
(2) Date: 31 Jul 90 23:45:43 EST (11 lines)
From: James O'Donnell <JODONNEL@PENNSAS>
Subject: Autobiographies
(3) Date: 1 August 1990, 13:20:19 EDT (18 lines)
From: FLANNAGA at OUACCVMB
Subject: Technology as good tool and bad dehumanizer
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 1 Aug 1990 9:13:06 GMT+0400
From: Judy Koren <LBJUDY@VMSA.technion.ac.il>
Subject: 4.0329, the best part of a poem...
Meitav hashir kizvo: the best part of a poem is its fallacy
Meitav hashir kitzvo: the best part of a poem is its rhythm
The word-play is immediately obvious, but since no-one else pointed it
out yet, I thought I would, just in case anyone who doesn't know Hebrew
is reading this discussion. Judy Koren.
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------17----
Date: 31 Jul 90 23:45:43 EST
From: James O'Donnell <JODONNEL@PENNSAS>
Subject: Autobiographies
A German customer for Augustine's Confessions should get in touch with
Prof. C. P. Mayer at the University of Giessen or with the
Augustinus-Lexikon housed at the University of Wuerzburg: they have all
of Augustine's 5,000,000 word output in machine-readable form. American
users should address Prof. Allen Fitzgerald of Villanova,
FITZGERAL@VUVAXCOM, who has a copy of the Wuerzburg database to which he
can provide access under restrictions set by the Germans.
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------22----
Date: 1 August 1990, 13:20:19 EDT
From: FLANNAGA at OUACCVMB
Subject: Technology as good tool and bad dehumanizer
Well at least the computer hasn't taken away all our jobs, as robots
were supposed to do. It has just overloaded us with information, so
that we become like Nixon in the famous photograph of him in Paris,
shaking hands with someone in the crowd while looking at his watch.
Have you noticed, while talking to someone long-distance, that they seem
more distant than they need be, not paying attention, really, but then
you hear a faint clicking over the receiver and you realize they are,
perhaps, playing solitaire with Windows 3.0, while they are supposed to
be talking to you? Do you notice that glazed look in a teenager's eye
as he or she sits becoming a potato on the couch while watching Ninja
Turtles? Every bot of the technology we expose ourselves to is
dangerous, in that we can become at any moment the tool of our tools.
Roy Flannagan (with some help from Thoreau's unforgettable image)