I'm new to on-line anything, and also new to Mr. Bradbury's writings. (This is my first entry ever to any bulletin board. I hope I do it right!) I read my first Bradbury (Martian Chronicles and Dandelion Wine) just last month and was instantly mesmerized and hooked, and now am spelunking in the caverns of his beautiful, magical, mystical stories. As the saying goes, I have two ears and one mouth, so will probably listen more than I speak--at least at first. But as I have more fingers than ears, eventually I'll learn to use them to speak my thoughts. I'm glad to have discovered Mr. Bradbury's writings and this bulletin board. It's fun and informative reading what you all think and know. Hey, does anyone know why I can't view the video clips of the author at home? I installed QuickTime but to no avail. I get the first one or two seconds of the clip, and then nothing. Thanks for any help anyone can give.

I remember being new to Bradbury's magic back in 1969! I hope you include "Something Wicked This Way Comes" and "Farenheit 451" in your upcoming reading. Also, as it sounds like you are doing, be sure to include a healthy batch of his short stories. They are phenomenal.

A short list of some of my personal favorites would include:

The Playground
The Dwarf
The Skeleton
A Sound Of Thunder
The Veldt
The Small Assassin
Kaleidoscope
There Will Come Soft Rains
The Long Rain
The April Witch
All Summer in a Day
The Pedestrian
Fever Dream
The October Game

One of the things I enjoy about this Bradbury site is the combination of the knowledge of the old Bradbury veterans side-by-side with the refreshing, new enthusiasm of new Bradbury readers. Thanks for posting your reactions to one of my personal heroes and inspirations.

Hi, and welcome aboard.

I had trouble with the videos, too (I'm also new to the board.) By experimenting a little, I found out that the Quicktime movies are VERY BIG, and take a long time to load (especially with a modem),- if you press the "PLAY" button again, you'll find that a few more seconds of video run before it stops again. The long white bar (just to the right of the speaker and "PLAY" button) in your Quicktime window represents the length of the video,- the position of the round knob and shading show how much has been downloaded. Be patient, go have a chocolate malt or something while it is loading,- it's worth the wait to see and hear Ray at home.

You've got to go Cable!

Download an hour video in less than 2 minutes.

I'm beginning to see the Internet just too fantastic for any SF concept in the past.

I can go to nearly any Airport in the US and listen to the control tower and the pilot.

I can see little cartoon airplanes above nearly any airport, and they move, and by clicking on them...find out their speed , destination, altitude, and arrival time.

I can listen to practically any country on the radio on- line....I can see people walking the streets of Paris or Rome or New York, LIVE.

I can play the most fantastic computer games...listen to any music that was probably ever recorded...read about any book, send electronic letters to about anyone important and not so important...watch movies..(found a website with 200 movies)...etc etc etc.

Tell me...how fantastic is this?? I can connect to a satellite in space LIVE, and see the Earth right now from Space. I can connect to a satellite and see my House from space....And it's just the start.

I don't quite know how I got on this...probably...that ...Cable makes the interet so much easier because of its speed ...You can go web- site to web -site like clicking stations on the television.

And to think, I started with a 2,400 modem and a 25 mhz ( that's twenty-five) apple computer.

Green Bear:

I'm not as sophisticated as these true Bradbury veterans. My postings on this web site represent my first postings anywhere on the internet, also. I was a bulletin board virgin! I'm a huge email fan, and enjoy the internet, but some of these more "advanced" capabilities are new to me.

One of the things about the internet is that it can be indiscriminate in the information posted. There is no screening process that is required. In classes I teach, I caution the students not to automatically trust what they find on the internet. Any idiot with computer skills can post whatever they want -- in many cases, nothing but useless dribble. In research, I still want them seeking out the best sources -- which is usually University Press books, and articles from scholarly journals. While many of these post internet sites that are reliable, much of the stuff "out there" is unrefined. University Press items are reviewed, typically, by three professors in a given field, before being accepted for publication.

The internet (in spite of the great stuff out there) seems to be included in the idea behind a quote from Henry Thoreau, where, in challenging the telegraph, he asked, "What difference does it make if France can talk to England if they have nothing worthwhile to say to each other?" (Paraphrased, quote is in Walden somewhere).

It reminds me of Heinlein's short story, "The Roads Must Roll", where technology can become its own God. Whether thousands of people die doesn't matter as long as the transportation systems continue to "roll". On the internet, I've read that up to 45% of its content is pornography. While I think that may be a pretty high estimate, that only represents one form of garbage out there.

But, I love the internet and its amazing capabilites to share information. It is truly a revolution!



[This message has been edited by Mr. Dark (edited 11-04-2002).]

Mr. Dark:::::

Hey...You sound like you have been mending well. Hope that's the case. Just ...always keep a can of "Anti-Spider Spray" nearby.

Your comments made me recall a fellow I knew years back that was aghast of ever going into a library...because...there were just far too many things to get his attention..and he felt he was loosing it every time he was near too many things to inquire about, like shelves and rooms of books.

Everything can be somewhat like that....the Internet is really just starting out..tho it's original intent was for communication in case of nuclear war.

But at this early stage, it is amazing. And it's up to the prudent and smart individual to choose and use wisely. Isn't that like anything? There are 3 bars and 2 churches on one block. I still can choose one over the other. Of course, that's over simplifying a complex situation.

But I ask: how would you explain anything today to somebody even a 100 yrs ago? You can get by with the telephone, kinda, and electricity....the car was already invented but there was still 98% horses on the street. Bradbury's Green Town was there, but it wasn't called that. I think someone would have a nervous breakdown if you took him from 1902 and landed him in the middle of a modern downtown city. Too many things to look at and understand at one monstrous time....??

[This message has been edited by Nard Kordell (edited 11-04-2002).]

I love the internet. I pull down legal rulings (like, for example during the Florida Fiasco) and can read the actual rulings at the same time they occur. I'm a fan of the space program, so I go out and view Hubble photos, probe photos, shuttle photos and ISS photos on a pretty regular basis.

I was talking to my kids the other night and we made a list of things they take for granted that didn't exist when I was a kid (at least, not in our neighborhood): Microwave ovens, VHS, phone features (caller ID, conferencing, call waiting, etc.), portable and cellular phones, color tv, the PC, the internet, email, etc.

These are not wham-bang melodramatic, you could probably argue; but what they have done is change the fabric of our social system and had dramatic impact on our day-to-day lives.

The other question (and part of the value of Sci-Fi) is whether these are good or bad. Does the internet increase a sense of community by sharing information, or does it increase alienation by reducing direct human one-on-one contact and having us all doing virtual communications in our separate homes at these terminals that are not healthy for our eyes?

Hmmmmmm . . .

P.S. The mending is slow, but steady! Thanks for your comment! (see, we're kind of a community which, without the internet, wouldn't exist at all!)

Ray says technology is a glove and it all depends on what kind of hand you put into the glove.

Leave it to Ray to come up with some succinct way of saying this.

So the next question is, "what kind of 'hand' would Ray say ought to be in that glove?"

Free-thinking, Creative, Original, Passionate, Compassionate, involved, etc. Without a definition of what he means when he says "hand" he is getting dangerously close to issuing a "slogan" or "platitude".

I would imagine the comment was in the context of a talk or interview?

Mr. Dark

Well, if you want to know how Cyberspace shall change our lives...it's had a long history. We've been on Cyberspace for an entire Century now. It's called the telephone. Cyberspace is defined as that "....illusion of "space" we create when communicating with another unseen or seen, that encompasses both parties..."

Gee...can that apply to letter writing as well??

[This message has been edited by Nard Kordell (edited 11-09-2002).]

That's a good point. I'm going to have to mull this over, and if my mulling generates any ideas, I'll be back . . .

In regards to letter-writing, there is something physical that alters its location in order to accomplish its objective (communication). With email (which I use a lot) electricity (or light) moves, but it takes a person of more reading in the area of physics to be able to say whether or not anything "moved". So email has the same function as letter-writing (communicating from one location to another) but it does so without moving a physical object. Is that a significant difference in reference to the question of cyber space?

He was answering the oft-repeated question of whether he hates machinery or technology with his usual answer--he doesn't hate them in and of themselves.

I agree.

Nevertheless, I have some questions about whether aspects of technology -- in and of themselves -- are harmful to the human species because they are inimical to our psychological/spiritual well-being.

Kids play video games and watch 600 channels on cable. When I was growing up, the choices on tv were very limited (no video games) and so the incentive to sit in front of a B&W tv with three choices was pretty low compared to going outside and playing. The result (and I understand the technology is only part of it -- there are still parents) is that diabetes his hitting people in thier late twenties instead of in their forties and fifties. Why? Kids are growing up too sedentary and too fat.

Technology allows us to microwave and use other means of technology to make food. Once we get fast, we want faster and faster. Altough many eat healthy diets, many others just give in to a fast-food diet -- a choice made possible in the home by new technologies.

Virtual groups provide a certain element of community; but there is no face-to-face interacton, no touching, no "going" anywhere real together. Hence, these virtual relationships may feel satisfying, but until they get beyond the keyboard, aren't we just creating a climate where people don't "have" to go out and meet people? They can stay holed up in their homes, with their faces glued to a screen and feel like they have a full life. But there may not be a single good night kiss or a hand to hold during a movie.

These usually are not directly the fault of technology. But is there a point at which -- by definition -- technology harms us as a species, or as individuals?

Well, you're over 100 years behind H. G. Wells in wondering that. Check out "The Time Machine," which I just finished on Halloween. There's food for thought.

"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

This is why the classics are so important. The go to fundamental themes man deals with over and over again. Each generation thinks it is entirely new, but it is the same play done over and over again. As Thoreau wrote in Walden, "Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new."

I'll have to repent and read it.