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ives@umbc.edu
As television networks executives cozy up to the idea of a rating system I wonder if a pg-13 will be good advertising forNYPD Blue. I also wonder if, as high speed cable modem blur the difference between the computer and television, will individual users be asked to rate themselves. I suggest we all begin practicing. If you do not have a homepage you can always start by rating you phone calls, after all the phone companies excited by the telecomunicatons bill are also getting in on the action. PREDICTION:
In 1996 the American voters will not choose one candidate over another. They will instead elect a composite candidate. Clever computer programs have been devised to take personality, conviction and belief data from both the Republican and Democratic candidates and construct a single entity. Actually the fancy computer programs were unnecessary because the candidates are so willing to let their identities be constructed based on data gathered from polls and what appears to be public consensus that they each are actively becoming a receptacle for a version of that composite candidate.The US government is very concerned about the exportation of encryption technology to foreign countries; however, they would gladly see foreigners downloading the puritanical morals embedded in the V-Chip. Perhaps the borderlessness of the Internet is a perfect place to begin to promote our all-American double standard cheeseburger. Two patties of sex, drugs, and violence, both covered with prepackaged slices of family values. Yes, even food stuffs are being used to integrate the new V-Chip technology into our society.Threading the needle-a 1.8MB uncensored movie
The "V" in the V-Chip is generally thought to stand for violence. Actually it stands for Verboten, the German word for forbidden. It covers anything that is forbidden, like explicit sex. Really the issue on computer networks is sex: keep the violence on television where it belongs. Many children do not have access to computers and some of those kids see more violence on the streets and in the discomfort of their homes than they do on television. The promise of V-Chip technology is to supply a simple answer to complex problems. The real benefactors are not children at all but politicians. They can claim to be against violence and of high moral standards without addressing real social problems. The power of the V-Chip is in its ability to raise the rhetoric and divert the public's attention from the failure of our government to deal with poverty and the crumbling infrastructure of our social services.
Other responses to the Telecommunications bill