Texto intitulado 'This computer thing', publicado a 9 de Maio de 2005 no blog de David Mamet, em The Huffington Post.
I understand that computers, which I once believed to be but a hermaphrodite typewriter-cum-filing cabinet, offer the cyber literate increased ability to communicate. I do not think this is altogether a bad thing, however it may appear on the surface.If, for example, all humans were linked, one could arise in any time zone and type in “Oh look, what a nice day,” thus potentially cheering portions of the world engaged in lachrymose meditations on the economy or the environment.
No doubt, however, someone, swine that we humans are, would perceive that the happy report (“what a nice day”) need have no actual connection to the weather. This individual, having, perchance, subsequently, gone to the dark side, might employ his talent for improvisation, once plied but in the cause of humanity, to wreak havoc – misstating, misanalyzing, or outright lying about the facts he had perceived. Soon, then, these computer “blogs”, would be as little deserving of our trust as are the books, journals, films, broadcasts, dramas, and flyers upon which we already depend for that we have come, in our need, to applaud as “information”.
A reflective person might opine that such a state of corruption must have already occurred, and that there is nothing, no matter how apparently “handmade”, in which one might put his unalloyed trust. I know there is such a person as “Arianna Huffington”, as I have had dinner at her house. There I met people as befuddled as myself about the state of the world, and as confused as to whether or not a vast coup had occurred in our government. I report further that this “Arianna Huffington” asked me to write for this computer thing. I hope you believe this report.
