WEB Tide: Casting the Net
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WEB TIDE: CASTING THE NET [At thankfully infrequent intervals, MRS other purposes, has overflowed into normal Bulletin seeks the wisdom of Dr. Science I. M. society, become respectable, and indispensSage, a consultant in Washington, DC, whose able. That's not to say that it has shed all of mobile office perpetually circles the Beltway in its weirdness. search of clients.] MRSB: What do you mean by that, Dr. MRS Bulletin: Tell us, Dr. Sage, what you Sage? think are the most portentous developSS: Let me cite some of your own Bulletin's ments of our time? history to make the point. Some years ago, Dr. Science Sage: Well, anyone who has yet you ran a Posterminaries column called "-on PROLIFERATION."^ (No, it had nothing to to notice the blistering pace of internet pendo with nuclear weapons.) It had to do with etration into every nook and cranny of our our habit of tacking the Greek -on suffix lives has undoubtedly been stranded on a onto just about anything when coining its desert island for some time. The prow of name. I have always wondered why you the trend is plowing into audio and video neglected to include Klingons in the list of plugins for web browsers, super secure offenses. You probably believed the refercredit transactions at cyber malls, the interence would be too obscure (except of course activity of Hot Java™, and on-line services for inveterate Trekkies). Obscure enough to that obviate the need to ever go anywhere keep it out of the Bulletin it may have been to do anything again in the flesh. and may still be, but apparently nothing is MRSB: Can you cite some examples of this too strange to be one more miraculous stop trend? along today's information highway. To wit, 9 the homepage of the Klingon Language SS: You bet I can! You can trade stocks and Institute lives on the web.2 bonds, file your tax return, do your grocery MRSB: How gracious of you to cite one of shopping, look up some trivia at the the Bulletin's past gems. But, don't you Library of Congress, chat with likeminded think the irony of science fiction turned sciindividuals scattered around the globe ence fact purveying science fiction is more (without long distance charges), and send than perverse? candy and flowers to a friend, all with a few keystrokes. SS: One person's perversity is another's MRSB: Is there anything these wonders entertainment. Don't get too cocky about my can't do? citing your publication. In that same column you missed another -on, one with profound SS: Yes, I must confess that so far the olfacimplications. You failed to anticipate the tory capabilities of the technology are lagemoticon, :-), the e-mail way of expressing ging the rest, so the candy and flowers will emotions while causing ninety-degree neck be non-electronic. craning worldwide. Only orthopedists are;-) about them, while the rest of us are :-(. It is MRSB: Surely this is only affecting the most hard to know if emoticons just reflect healthy technically sophisticated among us! Right? inventiveness, or if they foreshadow an omiSS: Au contraire! The wake of
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