Re: Metcalfes "imminent death of the internet" prediction

[Tim Bass <[e-mail]>]

> 
> Now, can we stick to the issue at hand, please, and enough dumping on people
> (lest the list of targets of similar behaviour get expanded, eh?)
> 

Noel, Hi!

I simple am stating  the 'creation of icons and superheros is
completely base and a waste of time, IMO'.... others are certainly
welcome to create superheros and legends as they find appropriate,
but true heros need no such activity.

If we examine both scientific and academic history, Noel, as you
surely have; we find that most people who are well known were
self-promoting egoists ( read the critiques of Mandlebrot, Newton, 
etc. to infinity ).  I am not saying that anyone in the IP world
is that way :-) :-) :-) however....

( if you do not put words in my mouth as you often do ;-)

... I am saying is that the success of the Internet is not based
on a collection of singularities but on the double integral
of the collective will and efforts of countless thousand of people;
including the non-college graduates sitting at NOCs handling customer
calls every day, citizens funding NSF and DARPA initiatives, 
experimentalists playing with protocols and paradigms, as well a
design engineers and theorists, not to mention the end users
need for information exchange.

Anyone is welcome to find fault in this logic.  But this is not
a 'new world view' on my part, and if I remember correctly, the
original thread was something about 'an Internet Hall of Fame'.

There is an old saying:  " it is amazing the amount of progess that
can occur when no one worries about getting credit for it "

As I see it, the Internet is sinking to a new 'low' as there
is now a need to iconify individuals.... mostly with a commercial
end goal, or to give the press and media something to feed to
their consumers.

How, Noel my dear friend, I ask you:

"What is the issue at hand, in your opinion?"  

Do you want to create icons out of individuals and "Halls of Fames"
as suggested?  Would you feel good to see you name in lights as well?
If so, then my all means, don't let my worldview stop the 'wheels
of human progress' (whatever that is, today).

Best Regards,

Tim

> 	Noel


-- 
We're just two lost souls 
	swimming in a fish bowl, 
		year after year,

Running over the same old ground. 
	What have we found? 
		The same old fears.

	Wish you were here.
		-Roger Waters