Subject: just words on a screen.
From: Robin Knight
To:Jean K Dewey
Date: November 8th., 1997.
Hi JK,
I don't know if you always read EMails from me, or even if you always
get them.. and I don't know how this is going to turn out, but I think I have to try.This is important to me, that you know how I feel. You seem to have had YOUR say!
But how could you think you are Just words On A Screen to ME!
I'm happily married, as you know, have a family, job, my own craft label, writing commitments, interests, still play sport, love to travel ..have more that I COULD do with each day than the day has hours.
And yet I find that this communication, this virtual reality you find so empty,.. this powerful, largely untapped new THING has enriched my life to a point I would never have believed possible.
Nor does it cause me to value the close-at-hand people in my life any less...
Somehow it seems to bring me closer to them, too.. and I am sure that, because I have found such rewarding interaction through this medium, I pressure my family and friends less for the kind of mental stimulation I need but which they could not always- rarely, actually- provide. Families make demands on each other.. cannot pick and choose, cannot switch off or put on ignore those they find on a different wavelength...
And this is where I think the new medium comes into its own.
Freed from the corporeal locksteps of place, colour, gender, culture, economic status, education, appearance, age... human brains are interacting in a way Ray Bradbury desribed for us and we didn't believe him. We are CHOOSING our friends rather than having them selected for us by convention, or locality, or family history. This IS communication.... and as we find ways to continue this communication.. adjusting a little here for the language difference.. a little there for a cultural difference, we are coming so much closer to the global village concept you are going to feature on your page.
As to 'real people' versus virtual friends. .I find that the distinction escapes me. What is the human persona? What constitutes the real man as opposed to 'words on a screen'? As a nonreligious person you will shrink from the idea of a 'soul' and yet it is that undefinable human quality that we have not yet been able to programme into our computers, no matter how well we teach them to enunciate
But how well, how very well, our computer can transmit that indefinable something to US.
Ideally, of course, these new friendships should be 'as well as', not 'instead of' and that is where we have to define priorities. I see you doubting the value of what has been happening here, and I can see where you are coming from.
But I can't relate to what you are saying and feeling.
On a sunny morning just a few days ago, I went off to work with a hug from you and a kiss from Luc.... I was so damned happy everyone noticed..it was a GREAT way to start the day.. I've thought about it since. .and I don't think that feeling would have been any stronger for it having been two VISIBLE friends suddenly materializing... probably would have been embarrassing for an old matron like ME!
And the point is, you and Art and Luc and Phil and Lady J and Sir Phillip and Rem and Wattie and Chez and Laurie and.. and..all of you... you AREN'T just words on a screen, are you? Someone/something has to PUT those words there!...okay, I can't see you, but some of the best human communication has always been with the light out! Bodies, conventions, culture.. these things get in the way!
If the " words are thought made visible" , then it IS the person there on the screen.
I guess I just don't appreciate the great difference.
Except that when YOU come into MY place you don't snore, fart, leave dirty clothes around, smoke indoors, have bad breath or want to listen to music I hate.
On the other hand, you DO seem to need the occasional hug, pepup talk or kick up the rear end... which makes you all the more REAL, do you understand?
You probably don't, ....but TRY anyway, okay?
love,
Robin k
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