Re: argument!!

Subject: Re: argument!!
From: Matt Hicks <matt -at- UNIDATA -dot- UCAR -dot- EDU>
Date: Wed, 7 Dec 1994 12:24:43 -0700

On Wed, 7 Dec 1994, Virginia L. Krenn wrote:

> It is connected to millions of people from every continent.

...and it must be stopped!

Sounds like the plot of a sci-fi/monster flick.

Seriously though, is "people are connected to it" the same as "it is
connected to people"? I don't think so. If I pin a button to my shirt, is
the shirt then attached to the button? Perhaps so, technically, but no
action performed on the shirt (short of ripping it) will unpin the
button--the shirt is acted upon by the pin. So the pin is attached to the
shirt, just as a lamprey might be attached to a shark, but not vice versa.

I'll assume that the original sentence was referring to the Internet (or
whatever you choose to call it). The people connected to it can perform
actions that directly affect the Internet, but the Internet cannot
reciprocate. It is a one-way connection. A semantic difference perhaps,
but an important one IMHO.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Matt Hicks, Tech. Writer, Unidata * I may not agree with what you
Boulder, CO, (303)497-8676, ******* say, but I'll defend to the
matt -at- unidata -dot- ucar -dot- edu ************* death my right to mock you.


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