Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk.tech
Subject: Re: SG & VR
From: Macbeth@cardinal.sc107.wesleyan.edu (Macbeth)
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 19:09:53 GMT
Organization: Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT USA

In article <13NOV199216452099@venus.tamu.edu> tww2568@venus.tamu.edu (WEEKS, THOMAS WILLIAM) writes:
>Subject: SG & VR
>From: tww2568@venus.tamu.edu (WEEKS, THOMAS WILLIAM)
>Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 22:45:00 GMT

>Why Bother with getting a SG VR setup?!!  It will just be obsolete (in VR terms)
>) in 1-2 years.....   Just get a mahcine that does the job and save $10K...

>You'll havew to excuse me... I'm new here and still adjusting to the increasing tide of SIG's here...
>tide of SIGS here.

>I find your Cyberpunk socially curious, but technically empty.

>You like (generilization, not you Zeke) to throw buzz words/phrases around like 
>rice at a wedding.

>I am an Electrical Engineer (have a degree) and have read your fav mag Mondo
>2000 and am curious as to why you are how you are.

>I can understand the natural attraction to the rush that the power of new tech-
>nologies can bring, but what substance does your self proclaimed "Movement"
>stand on?  I enjoy electronics and computers, but do not find I have to color
>box phreak for kicks, or do CC #'rs, or glue TTL chips to my clothes, do 
>brain drugs and come home each day to my biofeedback VSex computer interface.

>I have known many true hackers, for many years now.  They do not usually wear
>disks around their necks and have strange haircuts, but usually are lacking in the 
>the area of personal hygene, have gobs of hair all over thier bodies (some lack-
>ing in some places) and are social hermits (this discription , to a small ex-
>tent, discribes myself).

>Gimme a reply... I have looked into the pages of Mondo several times now and
>found myself laughing, gazeing and getting pissed at some of the ways that
>the cyberpunk mentality portrays technology and other things that seem new
>and mystifyingly powerful to them.

>                      Thomas Weeks

>P.S.  If ya need a handle.. fine...  

>                   AKA
>                            R.B
>                           M   a      h
>                                n    t 
>                                 dwid   

I agree with Mr. Weeks point of view. I have yet to meet a REAL computer 
hacker, phreak, or pirate who really cares a LOT on wearing 8088s on his 
leather jacket or not. Although I do know some who wear EPROMS dangling on a 
chain as a necklace or an embedded 68000 on a cap, it is very rare and they 
only do so because it is, to some extent, becoming a trend. However, these 
people are mostly anti-social, enjoy their solitude, and seldom care about 
personal appearance to the extent the so-called Cyberculture members do. 
Some of them listen to industrial, some of them listen to metal, some of 
them listen to punk, pop, old rock, classic, whatever. I enjoy Mondo 2000 
and in the latest issue there is a rather well-written report on hackers 
with REAL information (although technically vague). I used to enjoy The 
Legion of Doom's newsletter. I enjoy many things. However, different from 
Mr. Weeks' point of view, I have noticed differences within this so-called 
Cyberpunk movement. First of all: many people read Gibson, enjoy the book, 
like to see computer graphics, have all these silly dreams about the matrix 
and such, yet lack the ability and technological knowledge to interpret 
these figures in our real world. These are the neo-cyberpunks, those who 
would shriek in fear if someone told them "We'll replace your arm with a 
wired-up cyber-implant." Then, there are the others: those who disregard the 
matrix as a fantastical "other world," who seclude themselves in their 
cubicles programming fanatically, only to destroy their program once they 
are done. To these, I also include the unlucky people who, like me, had to 
undergo surgery to replace one of their body segments with a electronic 
substitute, due to a disease such as cancer, an accident, or the like. 
Unluckily, the Cyberpunk movement is composed of the former people: those 
who feel a certain romanticism to it yet completely misunderstand it, take 
drugs, talk computer grub (without knowing shit about computers), and listen 
to loud techno and industrial. Wake up, fellows, you'll never be computer 
criminals or street samurai: you are all destined to end up as yuppies, 
maybe even toys for the Yakuza :-).

							Greetings,

							Macbeth
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk.tech