From: Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 1996 05:08:15 +0800
To: Alan Olsen <cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: [rant] A thought on filters and the V-Chip
Message-ID: <2.2.32.19960129152606.006cbd80@panix.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 11:56 AM 1/26/96 -0800, Alan Olsen wrote:

>I have known too many adults that believe that by restricting their kids
>access to information, they can prevent them from growing up.  In these
>parent's minds, such information is what makes them want to hump their
>little brains out.  Biology has nothing to do with it in their limited way
>of thinking.  Cluelessness does not just cover computers with these people.
>It also covers any other topic that required more than two brain cells to
>understand.

Actually, if you place a child in one sort of environment or another you do
get a different "product."  The behavior of Amish children raised on farms
in rural Pennsylvania differs significantly from the behavior of children
raised crack-addicted parents in Bed-Stuy.  In fact, you get almost
non-overlapping bell curves for every characteristic.  I would guess too
that if you switched kids at birth between these two populations, the final
results wouldn't differ by much.  

What parents are attempting to do when they restrain their children's access
to "sex and drugs and rock and roll" (or Republicanism for that matter) is
to mediate their "spiritual" environment to keep them from becoming
hardened.  They know the kids will grow up, they just want them to grow up
in a nice way.

Children who listen to Vera Lynn's singing and Cole Porter's songs will end
up quite different from those who favor louder, less vocal music.  Note that
in spite of what liberals might think, fundamentalist christians are less
likely to divorce, less likely to report spousal beatings, less likely to
kill themselves, and more likely to measure high personal satisfaction
levels on standard psychological tests than are, say, readers of The Nation.

The cypherpunks relevance of all this is that it should soon be possible to
create completely mediated environments for ourselves and our children.
Through the use of implants and real-time VR processing, it will be possible
to edit our "interface" with the Real World such that unpleasant aspects are
edited out.  We will be able to change the attire, hair, facial expressions,
voice, and even smell of those around us to conform to our own esthetic
desires.  Likewise with our physical surroundings.  Safety may discourage
making a complete transformation in one's surroundings, but one can
certainly soften the edges.

Note that this is just an easier-to-implement version of what we can do
already with our own minds.

It will be interesting to see the effects on people who live in these
mediated worlds.  

DCF

"My grandmother didn't like to use the word 'Democrats' in the presence of
the children.  She called them 'bastards' instead." -- PJ O'Rourke