Constitutional documents are indeed powerful symbols used to unify groups of people and control their behaviour. To my mind, such symbols are used to acquire power and influence, not create respect for one's fellow man.

If you are suggesting that apologies and reparations to dead people are motivated by a desire to acquire or retain power and influence, then I can whole-heartedly agree.

I want to avoid casting governance and politics in an excessively negative light (they seem quite necessary for social stability), but I do believe such concepts are separate and distinct from ethics, which is the word I ought to have used in my first post in place of "Genuine progress and enlightenment".

I believe (and this is how I interpreted bigstrat2003's original post) that the reparations and apologies to the dead accomplish nothing of *ethical* importance. They quite obviously accomplish things of *political* importance.

Yes.

Genuine progress and enlightenment does not require a political mandate.

Maybe I'm missing something, but why not just have an external links section on your internal wiki, or a "Required Reading" section? Seems like the solution you're proposing is a little bit heavyweight for the described problem.

I am a man. I have a TomTom with a female guide voice, and I have no qualms at following its instructions (excepting the occasional wild, obvious inaccuracy). I read instruction manuals where appropriate, and use my skills and knowledge when applicable.

In my opinion, the stereotypical male who refuses to ask for directions or read instructions hasn't actually existed for some time, if at all. Give it a rest already.

I would like to note that anyone who willingly (discounting job opportunities) moves to the Midwestern States is bat-shit insane. Stay coastal, and north if you can't stand the heat/humidity.

Yes, maintaining a good reputation isn't necessarily a bad thing. I live in a fairly small town, and wouldn't move to the city without a gun to my head. It's nice to be able to go to the grocery store and meet somebody you know 9 times out of 10.

However, it changes the nature of the love game when the consequences of your behavior in romantic encounters aren't restricted to that context, but also have an effect on the rest of your social life.

The term "risk aversion" comes to mind...

On the flipside, if you do anything too outlandish in a small town, word gets around. If you're in a small town, be sure to keep your nose exceptionally clean.

The Internet is no less distracting and ephemeral than your works of fiction, Mr. Bradbury, although chances are good your comments were misinterpreted and taken out of context.

I find the comments about the longevity of paper to be very interesting. The Internet is a wonderfully fascinating and useful tool, but it is inherently fragile in numerous ways. Most fundamentally, it relies on _electricity_, produced in large quantity. This is a non-trivial task. Then comes the process of manufacturing the hardware, the silicon wafers and circuit boards, and so on...

I believe the global communication network will be our gift to humanity, perhaps as important as Renaissance, but its essential fragility is sad and disturbing to me. I would like our gift to have the durability and solidity of the Pyramids. A server farm or a fiber bundle is a shabby monument indeed for our culture and civilization. Perhaps our monument will be the landfill...

Still, I think there is hope: the structure is not without beauty, and has the potential to become a true artform, in the same vein as architecture. The space is virtual, not physical, but the concepts are the same: useful space that is also beautiful, even monumental.

I hope to see great things develop in the realm of information art and architecture. It's an exciting time to be alive.

This would be far more interesting if the add-ons could link to the base using some sort of wireless interface. I like the concept, though, and wish there were more things of this sort available. The concept of portable devices with add-on capabilities is a happy thought: multi-function devices tend to do a lot of things poorly. single-functions do one thing well, but won't share it or talk to anything else. If we can get the single-function devices talking to each other, we might be able to stop this silly nonsense of trying to pack all known useful features into one device and expecting it to have some sort of reasonable lifetime. The new and improved version complete with mind-reading is only a few months from release as it is. The pace of innovation will necessitate modularity in portable data/communication systems, IMO.