to: jcj
from: Utopia and Numeroso
1 July 1996
subject: letter two B
attachments: none
greetings from j-921
Yes we are still here, feeling neglected by our
animator and yet glad of the opening which he
gives us to reply to letter one.
And yes, you are right, we are constructing a
computernet (it was through it that we saw your
letter), and yes, it is going to be different from
the net you have on earth. Perhaps it will be
close to what you have in mind when you mention
i2.
We don't plan to open our net to everyone until it
includes new features that allow it, and
ourselves, to rise to all its possibilities. We
are observing everything that happens on the
earthly net, which we regard as a 'throwaway
design', useful only to reveal mistakes that we
hope to avoid. So your project could be effective
for us even if it achieves nothing on earth. We
expect to learn a lot!
But before you go on with the letters we'd like to
warn you of what looks to us like an early
mistake. It struck us immediately, as soon as we
read the synopsis-in-a-poem and the piece on bad
design.
You seem to be set on a course of seeing
everything as wrong in the man-made world, as you
call it, and of presenting your own ideas as the
only way to set things right. But that is a biased
view. The ancient sources of wisdom will tell you
over and over that there has to be stupidity and
badness (as well as wisdom and goodness) in the
world for otherwise there'd be no life. Someone
once compared it to driving a car. If you steer
always to one side you will only go in a circle.
To be able to steer a chosen course you have to
turn both left and right.
You ought to know this yourself for you brought us
into existence in your writing and you know very
well that we're a unified pair, Utopia being the
voice of perfection and Numeroso the voice of
everyone. There could be no conversation between
us if one were to dominate or if you were to melt
us into a single being. Either way it would be
living death.
We await your reactions with hope of something
more unified-and-yet-diverse in the letters that
you plan.
And by the way Betaworld (as you first described
it in your letter* to Bernard's conference at
Beyond2000) is indeed quite close to the
computernet which we are making. However in that
too there are traces of the dualistic thinking
which we are here to transcend. Not that we always
manage it.
Here are some of your phrases describing
Betaworld:
'... a worldwide replacement of tv particularly,
and of the net in its present multiforms ... a
virtual theme park of life itself, funded and
owned and operated by viewers (not by media
barons) ... a successful consumer revolution
against the media barons and the professional
broadcasters ... over the control of
"entertainment" or "edutainment", etc. ...'
You will surely notice there the one-sided
goodness of your ideas. Surely you remember what
happened in the electric book?* Things began with
Steve, the one who was going to organise j-921 as
a test-bed for earthly technologies, and for the
new lifestyles that could go with them. But in a
very few pages you found the other characters were
not interested in being just guinea pigs for
earth. From the Cardinal onwards, good and bad
became mixed up as the book got more interesting
and your utilitarian intentions were set aside for
a much more poetic mixture of world and of the
mind. And you were the first to laugh and enjoy
the fantasies once your serious purpose was set
aside. Or did you still retain a hidden purpose
when you were writing with a smile?
But we hope this letter doesn't put you off or
there's no future for us!
Good wishes
u+n