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Subject: The Future is a Thing of The Past.
From: rax <rax@thing.at>
Date: Sat, 26 Jul 1997 19:06:33 METDST

* * * * *

The Idea of the Future is a Thing of The Past.

Communications systems shrink the future by expanding the present. The
future used to be that which was just over the horizon ... unknown
and perilous. Climbing the mast, the sailor in the crowsnest with his
telescope could expand the present by another hour or another mile,
distance remained to be travelled but the range of the known was
increased. In the 18th century balloons extended the present by
expanding the horizon for the general to spy on the enemy and shrink
the area of surprise. Climbing ever higher, reducing the field of the
unknown with ever more sophisticated vehicles loaded with ever faster
and more efficient instruments of communication, the horizon of the
future has been gradually erased. Connected by speed of light
technology to our network of all-seeing satellites we have come to
live in a global present. The idea of the future is - at least for
those of us who are connected to the all-seeing devices - a thing of
the past.