Joel Achenbach and Marjorie Williams
The Matrix and the IMF
By Joel Achenbach
Posted Monday, April 10, 2000, at 2:19 PM ETYou have to love the headline on that Times spree-killer story: "They threaten, seethe and unhinge, then kill in quantity." Normally that's the language used by companies that sell disinfectants and pesticides. Maybe the piece will win a Pulitzer next year in the category of Investigative Obviousness--you know, the one where you win the prize if you point out that tornadoes wipe out a lot of mobile homes. (Dying Can Be Fatal, Study Finds.)
I liked the original Fail Safe and found it terrifying, especially the end, with the countdown to detonation, the final scenes of Manhattan. The president sends his wife to New York and then blows the place up--no Clinton jokes, please. I have a vivid image of some pigeons in a park, scattering in those final moments. When I was in elementary school, I think it was third grade--circa 1968--a teacher told our class that experts (unnamed, faraway people with big brains) had predicted that the planet wouldn't even be here in five years. Apparently, the bombs were going to obliterate everything. Or maybe pollution would do it, or overpopulation, or some other out-of-control system or side effect of modern technology. The good news, for a kid, was that five years was a long way off. So we hit the playground and didn't worry about it.
Our doomsday fears are a bit subtler now. We don't get bombed to death; we just get enslaved. Did you read that Bill Joy piece in Wired about how machines may take over someday? It seemed to be mashing the panic button a little hard, but it's definitely something to ponder, whether we really understand the kind of world we're creating. I wonder if the anti-World Bank, anti-globalization folks draw energy from doomsday scenarios, like in the movie The Matrix, which I saw this weekend on HBO (I'm the last to see anything). You probably know that in The Matrix the machines run the world and keep humans in vats, using them like batteries. The "real world" that we perceive is just a software program; life is a dream. The bad guys are sentient programs that are designed to resemble middle-aged white businessmen with receding hairlines. They look like people who you can imagine working for the International Monetary Fund. I loved how the movie exploits the paranoia that everyone feels in an increasingly technological and bewildering world. Feel like something's amiss? Don't feel like the world quite makes sense? Maybe that's because you're actually floating in a vat and machines rule the world! (Or maybe you just need a vacation.)
Thanks for your lovely image of the lights hitting the ceiling in the bedroom as a car outside climbs the hill. I'm in your camp. I think in life we spend a lot of time trying to recapture, or re-create, the subtle joys and assurances of childhood. Maybe when Elián grows up he'll constantly search for a march, rally, or protest to join. I just filed my column and, as warned, wrote about Elián, though the deadline pace of these online columns is so furious that I barely remember what I said. I think I said I was in favor of parenthood. I took a stand!
The Pulitzers will be announced soon--tensions are high. I think we're going to have a great day here.
Cheers,
Joel
The Matrix and the IMF
By Joel Achenbach
Posted Monday, April 10, 2000, at 2:19 PM ETJoel Achenbach is a reporter for the Washington Post, where he also writes "Rough Draft," a thrice-weekly online column. Click here to buy his recent book on extraterrestrial life, Captured by Aliens. Marjorie Williams writes a weekly opinion column for the Washington Post Op-Ed page and is a contributing writer at Talk magazine. Reader Response from The Fray--to be read after the final entry:
Let me get this straight: they give out Pulitzer's for criticism [Monday]? Please--my heart is pounding, my blood pressure is rocketing, my hands now shake, please dear, please, please tell me, where do I sign up?
--Old Timer [who is well-known in The Fray for his expertise in this area.]
(To reply, click
here.)
Re: Elian Gonzales. I believe that immigration laws should be as open and welcoming as possible. But at the same time we need to look at the long-term situation of the country the people are fleeing. There is not always a whole lot we can do, and we also run the risk of becoming control freak America with it's thumb in every pie--oh, hang on, we already are that. Well, anyway, my point is that instead of trying to pass a bill to make Elian a citizen, why don't we lift the embargo and make life a little better for all Cubans?
--Anne
(To reply, click
here.)
"That's exactly what Castro wants us to do", I believe, is the stock response to either ending or continuing the embargo.
--Steve Dowling
(To reply, click
here.)
[This response almost
silenced
David Edelstein, but not quite:]
The embargo is a 40-year hissy fit, and it's time to give it a rest. Say what you will against Castro (I can say plenty), he'd have been long gone if the embargo had been lifted 25 years ago and Disney and all the other U.S. corporations had moved in with their sundry inducements to free (sic) enterprise.
--David Edelstein
(To reply, click
here.)
The question of why people hate Janet Reno [Thursday] is a bit intricate and since I do hate her, I'd like to take a stab at it--the question, not her (I don't hate anybody that much). Reno reminds me of the Greek tragedy Antigone which shows us that strict enforcement of the law, by the book, isn't always the best thing. The Waco invasion wasn't the best thing, for example. I believe the law justified her actions, that the operation was by the book. But that doesn't mean it was a good thing. With Elian, there's that potential again that Reno will embark on the legal course, but that it won't be the morally right course.
Reno does not respect people who defy her. She assumes they are wrong and she acts on that and she has a tremendous amount of power to enforce her interpretation of law. This is the crux of my anti-Renoism: She doesn't talk to people, she barks orders at them. When people ignore the lectures they get punished. Hey, that's her job. But it'd be nice to have a more philosophical sort wielding all that power--someone with a better sense of proportion who realizes that every act of defiance is unique and deserves unique treatment.
--Michael Maiello
(To reply, click
here.)
Don Porges writes in The Fray about Thursday's entry:
"Random number generator" isn't academic-speak; it's perfectly standard math-speak, and if you're using dice to demonstrate probabilities, then they are being used as random number generators.
The definition and connotations of "dice" are much more precise in naming the objects in question. My old TI-99 had a "random number generator" command in its BASIC programming. Since it was just code, it resembled nothing that would help baby get a new pair of shoes. Besides "dice" fits into a headline nicely.
--Charles
(To reply, click
here.)
[No proposals this week. But that doesn't mean the Breakfast Table went unappreciated:]
These guys were the best. And that's granting that there were some close competitors. But Joel and Marjorie are the BT gold standard. The King and Queen are dead! Bring on next week's random number generators!
--Mike
(To reply, click
here.)
(4/14)
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Reader Response from The Fray--to be read after the final entry:
Let me get this straight: they give out Pulitzer's for criticism [Monday]? Please--my heart is pounding, my blood pressure is rocketing, my hands now shake, please dear, please, please tell me, where do I sign up?
--Old Timer [who is well-known in The Fray for his expertise in this area.]
(To reply, click here.)
Re: Elian Gonzales. I believe that immigration laws should be as open and welcoming as possible. But at the same time we need to look at the long-term situation of the country the people are fleeing. There is not always a whole lot we can do, and we also run the risk of becoming control freak America with it's thumb in every pie--oh, hang on, we already are that. Well, anyway, my point is that instead of trying to pass a bill to make Elian a citizen, why don't we lift the embargo and make life a little better for all Cubans?
--Anne
(To reply, click here.)
"That's exactly what Castro wants us to do", I believe, is the stock response to either ending or continuing the embargo.
--Steve Dowling
(To reply, click here.)
[This response almost silenced David Edelstein, but not quite:]
The embargo is a 40-year hissy fit, and it's time to give it a rest. Say what you will against Castro (I can say plenty), he'd have been long gone if the embargo had been lifted 25 years ago and Disney and all the other U.S. corporations had moved in with their sundry inducements to free (sic) enterprise.
--David Edelstein
(To reply, click here.)
The question of why people hate Janet Reno [Thursday] is a bit intricate and since I do hate her, I'd like to take a stab at it--the question, not her (I don't hate anybody that much). Reno reminds me of the Greek tragedy Antigone which shows us that strict enforcement of the law, by the book, isn't always the best thing. The Waco invasion wasn't the best thing, for example. I believe the law justified her actions, that the operation was by the book. But that doesn't mean it was a good thing. With Elian, there's that potential again that Reno will embark on the legal course, but that it won't be the morally right course.
Reno does not respect people who defy her. She assumes they are wrong and she acts on that and she has a tremendous amount of power to enforce her interpretation of law. This is the crux of my anti-Renoism: She doesn't talk to people, she barks orders at them. When people ignore the lectures they get punished. Hey, that's her job. But it'd be nice to have a more philosophical sort wielding all that power--someone with a better sense of proportion who realizes that every act of defiance is unique and deserves unique treatment.
--Michael Maiello
(To reply, click here.)
Don Porges writes in The Fray about Thursday's entry:
The definition and connotations of "dice" are much more precise in naming the objects in question. My old TI-99 had a "random number generator" command in its BASIC programming. Since it was just code, it resembled nothing that would help baby get a new pair of shoes. Besides "dice" fits into a headline nicely.
--Charles
(To reply, click here.)
[No proposals this week. But that doesn't mean the Breakfast Table went unappreciated:]
These guys were the best. And that's granting that there were some close competitors. But Joel and Marjorie are the BT gold standard. The King and Queen are dead! Bring on next week's random number generators!
--Mike
(To reply, click here.)
(4/14)