address the Al Gore people. We told them that this is the last
chance to give the poorest schools equal chances than the richest.
In a few years it will be too late and we won't be able to fill up the gap.
To me, Information Highways are best described by the most
interesting image I've seen on TV during the Los Angeles riot.
A Radio Shack shop (ED. a chain of shops selling consumer
electronics gear) was being looted. Next to that there was an Apple
shop, and it was untouched. People wanted to steal portable TVs
and CD players, not computers. I think this clearly indicated the
gaps of culture, or simply the gaps of chances, in our society.
Besides, the Information Highway issue gives the public a false
perception. They don't wanna offer you exhaustive accesses to
information; they wanna offer you a new shopping mall.
What do you think of the Clipper issue ?
The NSA wants to legislate that every computer manifactured in the
U.S. will have a chip built inside that will allow the Government
to decrypt the information. The worst thing is that people are not
informed of what is at stake here. Who would buy a computer with a
spy inside? The Clipper chip is an admission of incompetence.
They say they wanna be able to decrypt the information that would
jeopardize National Security. But to can prevent the Medellin cartel
to buy - say - into a Swiss corporation which comes up with a new
encryption system which totally cuts out the Clipper ?
Encryption programs are stronger and stronger. There is a new one
called Stego, which is free on Internet. It takes written material and
hides it in visual elements. I send a digitized e-postcard from
Cannes and there is half a novel hidden in its data. I've seen it work.
I haven't understood the half of it yet.
Man, the Clipper chip is fucked anyway. Most of the new edge guys
are into computers, and they're coming up with new gear nobody
had the slightest clue about five years ago. I saw recently a
prototype which looked like a beeper, but it was a virtual telephone.
Unfortunately, we have to deal with more paper than before. We are
submerged by tons of paper!
Wait a second. A few minutes you said you're not into hi-tech, and
now you're raving about it...
I'm not a techie. I don't know how these things work. But I like
what they do, and the new human processes that they generate.
What is in your opinion the most important technological
