Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 08:00:02 -0700 (PDT)
From: 2020 World <year2020@seatimes.com>
Subject: An Invitation to Hear Your Opinion!
To: cpsr-annmtg@cpsr.org
Message-Id: <Pine.3.89.9409260726.A7827-0100000@seatimes>
Mime-Version: 1.
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Status: RO

The year 2020, what will it be like?  By then, the big version of what w
call the info-highway will have been with us for some time.  Society will
have undergone major adjustments, earthquake-sized shifts.  Today'
journalism about the info-highway misses the point.  What difference does
it make if it's coax or fiber, PC or set-top box, TCI or AT&T.  What
matters is how it will change our world
Our world will change dramatically.  How?  Where?  What?  Today, if you
are curious about this stuff, you have two choices; read the Tim
magazine-type "general interest" feature written by someone who hasn't got
a clue, or read the Wired magazine-type "top ten"  Industry-leaders/
futurists (you know who they are!) lecture us on their particular vested
interest.  Either way, the real changes are not being discussed.  Let'
change that. 
I want to invite you to participate in a global group exploration of life
in the year 2020.  Let me introduce myself and then explain.  My name is
Kurt Dahl and I am currently the Vice President of Information Technology
at The Seattle Times (Seattle's major metro newspaper).  I am writing a
new weekly column that will be published in the Sunday Seattle Times
Personal Technology section. 

The column is called 2020world.  The idea of 2020world is to explore how
our lives will change when the information highway is a familiar and
integral part of our society.  The column will *NOT* be about technology,
that's why I picked the year 2020, by then we can all agree that a
broadband, fully switched, ubiquitous network will have been in place for
many years.  How that network will change our lives, not how it will work,
is the question 2020world will address. 

So now you are thinking -- I really don't need to read more simple-minded
drivel about the information highway.  I agree, you don't, and won't. 
2020world will explore ideas that are far outside the typical, boring
discussions of home-shopping and video-on-demand.  Yet it will be written
for the general reader.  Let me show you how.  I have included the first
column from September 25th, as an example.  Please read it, then you will
get the idea. 

Here is where you come in, and this is the most impo
To join in, simply reply (as shown below) and you will automatically be
enrolled as a subscriber to our mailing list.  Each week the new 2020world
column will be e-mailed to you as well as the best and most exciting
comments and responses.  If you want to respond, simply send an e-mail to
our address (also included below).  Any questions, send me an e-mail o
call. 

But first, read the inaugural column!  Here goes...

Copyright 1994 Seattle Times Compan
            2020world column title:  Emily is illiterate
The information superhighway -- aren't you tired of reading about it?  
And it doesn't even exist!  But it will.  And after it's built, we will 
live in a very different world.

How different and in what ways?  What you have read in the press so far 
is a lot of trivial chatter about "home shopping" and movies-on-demand" 
combined with boring technical details.  These stories just don't come 
close to capturing the profound changes we will experience.  To better 
understand where we are going we need a new approach, fresh ideas.  
That's what this column will try to do.

Let's discover this new world together.  Let's use one of the most 
intriguing new capabilities of the information superhighway:  the concept 
of group-mind.  Here's how:  I'll start with an original, sometimes 
outrageous, thought about life in the year 2020, and you send me your 
reaction to that idea.  I'll organize the most thoughtful, expansive and 
mind-stretching responses, and we will print them.

Your thoughts and questions can lead us in new directions.  Over time we 
will follow these "group-mind" wanderings whichever way they go.  If w
succeed, 2020world will be as much your space as mine.

   It's the year 2020, your daughter Emily is 9 years old, and she
   can't read or write.  Is this your worst nightmare about our schools 
   come true?  Nope, Emily just doesn't need to read or write anymore. 

The written word is a means to an end and not an end in itself.  We use 
it to communicate with large groups and to preserve ideas, but we prefer 
the spoken word.  In 2020world, with the ability to create, store and 
send audio and video as easily as written words, why would we need to 
read and write?

Look inside your own head.  Do you store information as written words?  
Do you dream in written words?  No, you don't.  Visual images and spoken 
languages are our natural form of information.  Writing is nothing more 
than a technology.  It can be replaced by something better.  In fact, 
some forms of the written word are being replaced right now, lik
shorthand.  Can you think of other dead technologies?

I'll bet you are now in the "but what about..." stage:
But what about education?  Video can do anything books can do; 
well-produced video can do many things better.  Which is the better way 
to learn about the Civil War -- reading a text for 10 hours or watching 
10 hours of Ken Burns' PBS production on the Civil War?

But what about the law?  Don't we need the precision implied by written 
rules?  Perhaps, but wouldn't videos of the original trials, legislative 
debates, rulings and precedents be a better guide to future generations 
than law books?

Send me your own "but what abouts."  But make sure to include your 
thoughts about how the 2020world would deal with those situations, too.

Does Emily really need to read and write in 2020world?  I don't think 
so.  Do you?

      **************************************************************
      *                                                            *
      *  Kurt Dahl is vice president of information technology at  *
      *  The Seattle Times.  The views he expresses here are not   *
      *  necessarily those of The Seattle Times Company.           
      *                                                            *
      **************************************************************

SUBSCRIPTION INSTRUCTIONS
2020world is currently an unmoderated list, however, there are plans to
implement the DIGEST option.  All mail sent to this list will be sent to
all other subscribers. 

To subscribe, mail to:

        majordomo@seatimes.com
        and, include in body of text:  subscribe 2020world

If you choose not to subscribe, but would like to e-mail me directly with
your comments, my address is: 

        year2020@seatimes.com

or, call me at:

        206-464-3339

or, FAX me at:

        206-382-8898

Thanks for taking the time to read this loonnggg e-mail.  Please join in 
and help us understand the real nature of our world after the informatio
highway is built.  Send your subscription e-mail right now!  I'm looking 
forward to adding your thoughts to our discussion.

One last request, please forward this invitation to those who you think 
would be interested.

Thanks!

Kurt Dahl


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