[PREV - FRANKENSTEINS_QUOTATION]    [TOP]

MORE_OR_LESS

                                              February 6, 2005



At Burning Man, cell                               BURNING_MOMENTS
phones don't work.
                              (Actually, older, higher
It's effectively off          powered phones work, but
of the grid.                  that's not widely known.)

Everyone who goes
there recognizes
that this is a
essentially a good
thing.

If cell phones worked, you'd have to
deal with people from work calling        Or complaining about
you all the time.                         how you're not turning
                                          your phone on.
If cell phones worked, you couldn't
go anywhere without listening to                  OPTIONS_ARENT
lots of excited one-side jabbering
about how cool the place where you
are is, and why they should be here
rather than there.

    (Even though the
    jabberers are clearly
    in neither place.)


But if cell phones *did* work,
is there any way that you could
convince people to leave them
at home?

Since nearly everyone agrees that
it's good to be off the grid
at Burning Man, they should be
able to agree to boycott the
grid, right?


    But... what if there's
    An Emergency?  You might
    need to call for help!

      And what if someone says
      "But *why* won't you bring
      your cell phone?  You don't
      want to talk to me, do you!?"

                                                     No mechanism for
                                                     turning down a
We know that more                                    capability.
isn't always better,
but we have no way                                      (Well...
of saying "no" to                                       short of
more.                                                   jamming
                                                        devices.)


--------
[NEXT - OPTIONS_ARENT]