Monday, October 7, 1996, letter from Atlanta

Dear Richard,

     I'm getting "all of the aboves" fixed
with a little help from my friends...

     That's right: I checked into long term
treatment. :) (Oh, no) (You hate that)

     Don't worry your pretty head. I don't
have a chance in hell of changing anything
but some nasty habits and my address.

     I would like to write my heart
but it seems to have a few valves that
need replacement.  Perhaps one of the groups
will aid with the squeaking sounds?

   This convent for drug addicted spoiled
kids (all women) is nationally know for
low recitivism; I would like to be
credibyl crazy in my old age.

     The stars here in the most remote
part of Mississippi are incredible. I
thought of you during the lunar eclipse.

     Write to me here. I've abandoned all
prior attempts at aloofness.

     I'm getting a divorce.

                                 Yours,

                                   Sarah


Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 14:35:48 -0500
To: Bill LeFurgy <wlefurgy@radix.net>
From: adl@xensei.com (Richard Gardner)
Subject: technology/anthropology and "what the heck is going on here?"

>___________________________________________
>
>CULTURE IN CYBERSPACE
>October 14, 1996/Volume 01, Issue 33
>ISSN 1089-3652
>___________________________________________

Consider for a moment this somewhat simplified sometimes scenario of
life in Chimp society:

When there is lots of food (figs) available, mother Chimps take their
children and go away from the group which consists of males, females,
and children.

When times get bad, that is, fewer figs and other foods, the females
move back into groups with males.  They do this in order to improve
their chances of getting food from the males in exchange for sex.

This is a tendency, not total or absolute, in terms of their behavior.

Now, let me suggest that humans live in an environment with resources.
This includes the modern world.  For any individual, they come into
this world and, wherever they are born, there are certain resources
around them.  In the modern world, our world, this environment is very
rich with resources. On last night's news I heard the startling report
that 59% of men, and 49% of women, are overweight. Note that this
means anyone from an oz overweight to those weighing several times the
weight of most people their height and age.  So we live in an
environment that is rich with food to a degree probably never seen in
the human past.

Technology is the mechanism, the lever, that continues to increase the
richness of our environment.

Let me now suggest that phenomenon such as divorce, single mothers,
increasing numbers of unmarried women deciding to have children, and
other stresses on the nuclear family, are a consequence of our
environ- ment--not unlike what Chimp society experiences. Male
aggression is one factor driving these phenomenon.

And the nuclear family itself is a consequence of our technology.  It
was not possible for single families to survive before our modern age.
The rich environment of the city made the modern family possible.  The
village, the tribe, is probably the oldest human institution--and was
long necessary for humans to survive and prosper.

At some point intelligence, and the ability to manipulate matter and
energy, primarily fire, began to change the tribe and made the
invention of new human institutions possible.

Today it is possible for a single person to be born, raised to the age
of 18, or even less, and live by themselves, in the modern
environment, "harvesting" goods and services in exchange for work.

One consequence of this rich environment is that human attachments of
the past will decrease.  That is, we will need less and less emotional
contact to our family, friends, etc, in order to survive.  One only
needs to be civil: thank you, I say to the human who serves me, and
even less to the machine that dispenses cash, product, service, etc.