Now comes the computer, which outsold television in the last few years. The experience of it. But the computer has a rapidly changing character. I think it is now accepted that the computer industry will leave the stodgy field of television as soon as it tires of TV's inherent product stability. That world can all change faster than can the television.
Television has one main function, even if it buys some other functions from the computer.
In short, the HDTV set, along with its richly satisfying programming, will emerge out of this convergence confusion looking and standing very much on its own. If that ever goes away, you can say good-bye to television. But the play has been with us since we began communicating. It will continue to be with us as long as there are stories to tell and story tellers and performers to tell them. To me the merging of television with the computer is like mating a gazelle in flight with a turtle.