From: Robert S. Thau (rst@ai.mit.edu)
Date: Tue Jan 02 2001 - 15:24:52 PST
Lisa Dusseault writes:
> - The title-virus itself is problematic. It made me cringe when I read
> about a virus that put people into comas just by displaying a certain
> "snow" pattern on (part of!) their screen.
Ummm... counterpoint: the Pokemon cartoon which did, in fact, cause a
raft of epileptic seizures in Japan. Of course, most viewers were
unaffected, but then again, the Pokemon cartoon wasn't actually
*designed* to have that affect, and it was a broadcast that couldn't
adapt to the viewer's response pattern, whereas software conceivably
could.
Still implausible, perhaps, but in a book which includes jet-propelled
dog-based cyborgs cruising highways at 500 MPH, the mafia using
heavily armored high-tech vehicles for pizza delivery, and a memo from
the Federal government telling its employees not to use U.S. currency
as toilet paper, not to mention all that Sumerian stuff, I'll cut him
some slack...
rst
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jan 02 2001 - 15:30:15 PST