From: francis@ircam.fr (Joseph Francis)
Subject: Re: Caller ID block?
Organization: IRCAM, Paris (France)
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 92 17:13:46 GMT

In article <BzF6oE.777@ns1.nodak.edu> csmith@plains.NoDak.edu (Carl Smith) writes:
>In article <BzEty1.A40@acsu.buffalo.edu> v067rcyf@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (AARDVARK) writes:
>>In article <BzD8s8.E0n@ns1.nodak.edu>, csmith@plains.NoDak.edu (Carl Smith) writes...
>>>Here's a similar scenario.  Suppose my doorbell rings.  I can look though
>>>the peep hole and see who it is.  If the person on the other side is
>>>carrying a case that says "Handy Dandy Brush Sales," or I just don't like
>>>their looks, I can choose to not open the door.  Also, if you knocked on
>>>the door and someone said "Who's there?" and you refused to answer, could
>>>you actually expect them to open the door?
>>
>>nope nope nope nope
>>what you fail to recognize is this isn't a door into your house,
>>only an audio representation of what might be happening at your domicile
>
>It is an "audio door" into my house, so the above example still applies
>when your deciding if you wish to talk to someone on the other end of
>the phone line, or if you wish to talk to someone on the other side of
>your door. (The door on my house is solid oak, you can't talk through it.)
>
>>>This all parallels caller id quite nicely.  If I don't recognize your number
>>>I won't answer the phone, just like I won't answer the door if I don't like
>>>the looks of the person on the other side.  And if you call with your ID
>>>blocked, I wouldn't even consider answering the phone, just like it would
>>>be totally out of the question to open the door to someone who refused to
>>>answer when I said "Who's there?"
>>
>>the other thing is, while a person at the door may be able to physically
>>harm you or force its way into your house, there is _absolutely_ no
>>danger of that over the phone... you can just hang up and they can't
>>touch you

Clearly there is no phone harassment possible in your world, nor is
there the possibility of what seemingly would be called urban
mythological "heavy breather" sexual harassment calls. Even though, of
course, in areas where there is Caller-ID, that sexual and non-sexual
harassment (prank) calls have virtually disappeared, it was probably
just because they didn't exist in the first place. People have
unlisted phone numbers because they like paying extra and not because
any loon with a quarter or a line can play as they feel and some
people aren't interested in being in on the game. No one /I/ know has
ever used an answering machine to screen calls to find out who the
caller is before picking up, no, no one I know, and no one I know has
restricted the phone to outbound only with inbound coming into a voice
message box so there is a further limit on who can intrude on them
without warning. Why, everyone that ever has made a telephone call for
any reason is just a sweet as sugar pie and I'd want to invite them in
my living room to disrupt whatever I was doing at any moment stranger
or not.

I think the 'right' to anonyous phone calls rank up there somewhere
with the 'right' to bear the weaponry of my choice and the 'right' to
not have an ethnic group I don't like live in my neighborhood, and the
'right' to drive a polluting car.

Doubleyawnplus.
-- 
| Le Jojo: Fresh 'n' Clean, speaking out to the way you want to live
| today; American - All American; doing, a bit so, and even more so.
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk,alt.cyberspace,alt.evil,alt.folklore.college