Todd Brewster & Peter Jennings by The Century for Young People: 1961-1999: Changing America Page B
Tags: United States, Historical, Juvenile Nonfiction, History, Biography & Autobiography, 20th Century
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shopping, or send electronic mail to the far corners of the worldâall at the touch of a key.
Cyberspace pioneers ventured boldly into the virtual world online. Stacy Horn, born in 1956, was one of them.
W hen I was in my first semester at NYU, we had to call a place called the Well, and I was an instant addict. The Well is an online service based in California. Itâs a virtual community, where people get online to pretty much talk about anything under the sun. When I was in my last year of graduate school, I logged into the Well and someone said to me, âHey, we heard that you were going to start the East Coast version of the Well.â I had never said that, but all of a sudden it was like, âDuh, of course I can do that.â So I just typed in, âYes, I am.â
In March 1990 Echo opened to the public. I came up with the name Echo because I had some vague idea like you throw your words out into the world and words come back. I couldnât get any investors interestedbecause in 1989 nobody would believe me that the Internet was going to be hot.
I structured Echo so it was made up of different areasâwe call them conferences. Thereâs a books conference, a movies conference, an art conference, a New York conference, and within these conferences are conversations that fit under that general heading. The conversations are in whatâs called non-real time. So I can go into, say, the books conference and type in whatever I have to say. Then you can log in tomorrow, see what Iâve written, and add whatever you want to say about the subject. So the conversation keeps going on, and you can talk to these people regardless of whoâs logged in when. Itâs actually better than a live conversation. In a conversation thatâs non-real time, you can take your time and really consider your thoughts and say something more substantial.
On the Internet, you get to know someone from the inside out first, whereas in the physical world itâs from the outside in. Each way has its pluses and minuses. People are people, and theyâre no different online than they are anywhere else. We donât sit down at our computers and all of a sudden become unreal. If I say âI love youâ to someone on the phone, does that make it not real? So if I say it on a computer, why would that make it not real?
The Internet played a big part in making the world seem smaller. People could now communicate with each other around the world, instantly, without laws or controls or many government restrictions. Many believed that the computer and the fax machine were vital to the collapse of Communism. A system that depended on controlling information simply could not withstand the new technologies. All people needed for ideas and information to flow was a computer and a phone line.
Still, while enthusiasm for the World Wide Web raced around the globe, there was also skepticism. Some intellectuals worried about its impact on society. With technology dominating our lives, would we become slaves to the machines? Would the creation of so many virtual worlds make people care less about the real world?
Mistrust of technology inspired the âUnabomber.â Theodore Kaczynski, a Harvard-educated hermit, had systematically targeted people in the technology industry. His mail bombs killed three people and injured twenty-three in sixteen separate attacks. They were an insane attempt to slow the progress of science and technology.
But Kaczynskiâs bombs were not as deadly as the work of Timothy McVeigh. On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb exploded outside a federal building in Oklahoma City, collapsing its nine floors. For daysrescue workers pawed through the wreckage looking for survivors as outrage and despair gripped the nation. In the end, 168 people were dead, including 19 children who were in the buildingâs day-care center.
How could there be a terrorist bombing in the heartland of the
Cyberspace pioneers ventured boldly into the virtual world online. Stacy Horn, born in 1956, was one of them.
W hen I was in my first semester at NYU, we had to call a place called the Well, and I was an instant addict. The Well is an online service based in California. Itâs a virtual community, where people get online to pretty much talk about anything under the sun. When I was in my last year of graduate school, I logged into the Well and someone said to me, âHey, we heard that you were going to start the East Coast version of the Well.â I had never said that, but all of a sudden it was like, âDuh, of course I can do that.â So I just typed in, âYes, I am.â
In March 1990 Echo opened to the public. I came up with the name Echo because I had some vague idea like you throw your words out into the world and words come back. I couldnât get any investors interestedbecause in 1989 nobody would believe me that the Internet was going to be hot.
I structured Echo so it was made up of different areasâwe call them conferences. Thereâs a books conference, a movies conference, an art conference, a New York conference, and within these conferences are conversations that fit under that general heading. The conversations are in whatâs called non-real time. So I can go into, say, the books conference and type in whatever I have to say. Then you can log in tomorrow, see what Iâve written, and add whatever you want to say about the subject. So the conversation keeps going on, and you can talk to these people regardless of whoâs logged in when. Itâs actually better than a live conversation. In a conversation thatâs non-real time, you can take your time and really consider your thoughts and say something more substantial.
On the Internet, you get to know someone from the inside out first, whereas in the physical world itâs from the outside in. Each way has its pluses and minuses. People are people, and theyâre no different online than they are anywhere else. We donât sit down at our computers and all of a sudden become unreal. If I say âI love youâ to someone on the phone, does that make it not real? So if I say it on a computer, why would that make it not real?
The Internet played a big part in making the world seem smaller. People could now communicate with each other around the world, instantly, without laws or controls or many government restrictions. Many believed that the computer and the fax machine were vital to the collapse of Communism. A system that depended on controlling information simply could not withstand the new technologies. All people needed for ideas and information to flow was a computer and a phone line.
Still, while enthusiasm for the World Wide Web raced around the globe, there was also skepticism. Some intellectuals worried about its impact on society. With technology dominating our lives, would we become slaves to the machines? Would the creation of so many virtual worlds make people care less about the real world?
Mistrust of technology inspired the âUnabomber.â Theodore Kaczynski, a Harvard-educated hermit, had systematically targeted people in the technology industry. His mail bombs killed three people and injured twenty-three in sixteen separate attacks. They were an insane attempt to slow the progress of science and technology.
But Kaczynskiâs bombs were not as deadly as the work of Timothy McVeigh. On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb exploded outside a federal building in Oklahoma City, collapsing its nine floors. For daysrescue workers pawed through the wreckage looking for survivors as outrage and despair gripped the nation. In the end, 168 people were dead, including 19 children who were in the buildingâs day-care center.
How could there be a terrorist bombing in the heartland of the
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