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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 a        
world frequently turns out to      large extent, and yet we have     
be messier than that.              mounted police patrolling in      
                                   Central Park.  Further,           
                                   bicycles are still useful and     
    I find it easier               everybody walks now and then.     
    to believe that                                                  
    the future will                                                  
    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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