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NOTHING_IS_PURE


I've heard it argued that it was a
failure of imagination for Gibson's           alt.cyberpunk
cyberspace decks to have keyboards.           July 17, 1989

   Wouldn't they really use
   a purely neural interface?

My first thought:

   "I notice that despite menus and mice
   Macintoshes also have control codes."


The point is that while it's
easy to develop a vision of
the future as the embodiment
of a single concept, the real      Cars displaced horses to
world frequently turns out to      a large extent, and yet
be messier than that.              we have mounted police
                                   patrolling in Central
                                   Park.  Further, bicycles
    I find it easier               are still useful and
    to believe that                everybody walks now and
    the future will                then.
    be a mixture of
    visions, some of
    them apparently         In prospect, the choices get
    contradictory.          romanticized to extremes.

                            In retrospect what you get is
                            always some weird mixture.

        Nothing is                                 Must it be
        ever pure.                                 "utopia or oblivion"?

                                                   How about both
                                                   and neither and
                                                   inbetween?


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