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215 lines
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<TITLE>The Answer Guy 28: Some Thoughts on "The Man of the Century"</TITLE>
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<H4>"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<H1 align="center"><A NAME="answer">
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<img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" alt="" border="0" align="middle">
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<a href="./lg_answer28.html">The Answer Guy</a>
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<img src="../gx/dennis/bbubble.gif" alt="" border="0" align="middle">
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</A></H1> <BR>
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<H4 align="center">By James T. Dennis,
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<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">linux-questions-only@ssc.com</a><BR>
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Starshine Technical Services,
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<A HREF="http://www.starshine.org/">http://www.starshine.org/</A> </H4>
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<p><hr><p>
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<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
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align="left" border="0">Some Thoughts on "The Man of the Century"</H3>
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<p><strong>From Brian Schramm on Sat, 11 Apr 1998 on the Linux Users Support
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Team (<a href="http://www.unixzone.dk/lust/lustf1.html">L.U.S.T</a>)
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Mailing List</strong></p>
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<p><strong>Hello,
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<br><br>
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I think this might interest... It arrived to me without the original
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sender ID.
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<hr width="10%">
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The DALnet #Linux has started a movement to get Linus Torvalds voted as
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Man of the Century. Their idea is to get a massive number of votes for
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Linus, which would at least get the attention of Linux if nothing else.
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They estimate that they need about 1 million votes to pull it off.
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<br><br>
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They've requested everybody to vote for Linus and to pass it along. The
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category in which Linus is being placed also has a mention of Bill
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Gates, so we've got some competition. If you would like more
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information, see the URLs below.
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<br><dl>
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<dt>Vote for Linus Torvalds:
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<dd><A HREF="http://www.pathfinder.com/time/time100/time100poll.html"
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>http://www.pathfinder.com/time/time100/time100poll.html</A>
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<dt>Linus as Man of the Century Mailing List:
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<dd><A HREF="mailto:linusmotc-request@merconline.com"
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>linusmotc-request@merconline.com</A>
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</dl>
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<hr width="10%">
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When you vote the system gives you the present ratings. The category
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where Linus shows now: </strong></p>
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<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" alt="(!)" width="50" height="28"
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align="left" border="0">While
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I have the utmost respect for Linus and feel greatly
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indebted to him for Linux. I have reservations about this
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suggestion.
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<br><br>
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First I have to say that the computer has not, in my opinion, been
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the dominate development of this century. Although microcomputers
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are the basis for my career and the principle tool in my hobbies
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(writing and participating in newsgroups and mailing lists) --- I
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have to step back and try to achieve a more objective view.
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<br><br>
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I'd rate the development of the telephone and our world wide
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telecommunications infrastructure as roughly an order of magnitude
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more important worldwide. Granted that modern telephony would be
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impossible without the computer. The underlying importance of the
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telephone has driven computers in large part (specifically in the
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development of Unix --- at AT&T Bell Labs!). However, my sense of
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history suggests that the impact of telephony was already evident
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before that (when the vast majority of it was run by mechanical
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relays and even by human switchboard operators).
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<br><br>
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Despite this I wouldn't even say that telephony is the most
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important development of our century. I think that broadcast
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media (radio and television) have at least twice as much impact
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as the phone. The reason is that telephones primarily extend
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our ability to communicate and shrink our time scales --- but they
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are still mostly localised geographically and socially. The fact
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that the technology allows me to call someone in Japan as easily as
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I could call the local Pizza parlor doesn't matter much when I have
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no acquaintances in Japan. The telephone doesn't most of us to really
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connect with a significantly broader or larger set of associates
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than were possible with old-fashioned postal correspondence.
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<br><br>
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Broadcast television has had quite a bit of effect on this country
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and on most of the rest of the world. The results are fundamentally
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different than anything that could be have been accomplished by
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correspondence or other forms of individual association. Prior to
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radio and television we didn't even have a word "broadcast."
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<br><br>
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I'd put publishing in the same league as broadcast media for potential.
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However it is several centuries old. Also its potential has never been
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as widely realized as broadcast media due to the simple hurdle of
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<em>literacy</em>. This is not so simple as functional literacy. Many people
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have sufficient academic skills to participate in our (or their) culture
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--- but are not affected enough by any publications to really move
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society. I personally consider television to have had a greater
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effect on our culture based largely on the sheer number of hours that
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people spend absorbing its emanations.
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<br><br>
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It doesn't matter how trite most of the "content" has been --- the
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fact is that a largely percentage of the world's population has been
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pacified for an astounding number of hours by TV's and movies (silver
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screen). I'm not nearly so concerned by what television has caused
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people to do as how much it may have prevented by its diversion.
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<br><br>
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Despite the its greater importance I still wouldn't say that television,
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movies and other broadcast media is the <em>most</em> important development
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in our century. There is one thing that's had even more effect over more
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of the world that those.
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<br><br>
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I think I'd have to give the award to Henry Ford. Not only is the
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automobile one of the most important and ubiquitous developments of
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<em>this</em> century, but the manufacturing techniques and organisational
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structures associated with Ford dominate the world's economy and literally
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shape our cities.
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<br><br>
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So, despite the fact that Ford appears to have been anti-semitic and
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to have held elitist views that would disgust many people today --- I'd
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have to vote for him for <em>this</em> century.
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<br><br>
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That brings me back to Linus. I think we just might see the real effects
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of the FSF and Linux later. It may be that people in 2098 will look back
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and remark on how the spirit of co-operation that was fostered by
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Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds (among many others) in the field of
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microcomputer software fundamentally changed our culture's ethic and
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economy. We might see radical changes to the publishing industry as
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more content moves more unto the 'web' (by which I don't just mean HTML
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carried over HTTP --- but in a broader sense I mean to include the
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multi-cast communications we see in netnews and on these mailing lists).
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<br><br>
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This would have to be accompanied by radical solutions to the <em>real</em>
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problems we face in the world today. We cannot continue to allow our
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population and resource utilization to grow through another century.
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In addition the current allocation of natural resources must be rationalized
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before we can have a better world. If we continue to have less than
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5% of the population accounting for 80% of the world's resource consumption
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and continue to allow individual to rape the land that they "own" and
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discard it when they've extracted the value from it then most of the
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world's population will remain poor and miserable (and most of the
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"developed" nations will see large parts of their own populations
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degenerate into "third world" conditions). This is not "doom and
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gloom" prophecy --- it's a simple matter of arithmetic. The question
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is not "if" but "when" and I think the argument is over decades
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rather than centuries.
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<br><br>
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So, if we're still in a position to concern ourselves about a
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"person of the century" contest ten decades from now, I hope that
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the standard of living for the rest of the world has improved
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to the point where we can get more than a .05% participation
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in the selection process. (There were less than 3 million votes
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listed in the table that Paul quoted, and that's only 1% of
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<em>just</em> the U.S. population --- which is about 5% of the world
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population last I heard).
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<br><br>
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Who knows, we might then see a bit of national, racial, or even
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gender diversity in the candidates! (Unfortunately that might
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take way more than a century).
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<br><br>
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It's not very likely --- but I'd like to on the next century and be
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astounded by the spread of altruistic collaboration from software into
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other endeavors.
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<br><br>
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While I can't vote for Linus Torvalds as the man of this century I can
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mark his accomplishment as one of the most amazing things I've ever
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seen. He might leave a legacy that makes him the man of the next century!
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</blockquote>
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<!--================================================================-->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<H5 align="center"><a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html"
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>Copyright ©</a> 1998, James T. Dennis <BR>
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Published in <I>Linux Gazette</I> Issue 28 May 1998</H5>
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