I was elated when I caught Cliff Stoll on the radio talking about his book Silicon Snake Oil (Doubleday, 1995). The book is an antidote to the hype--the snake oil--surrounding the Internet, the as-yet-unbuilt information superhighway, the fabled realm of cyberspace. On this radio program, Stoll was presenting some of the arguments he makes in the book.
As I listened to his arguments, I found myself mentally demolishing each one. This guy's all wet, I thought. I should buy the book and write a take-no-prisoners critique of its arguments. Rip it apart the way Mark Twain demolished James Fenimore Cooper's writing in "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses."
I should have known better. Cliff Stoll is the author of The Cuckoo's Egg, a wonderfully engaging, true-life detective story about his success in uncovering a ring of net-cracking spies. Obviously he knows how to write, and how to think straight. When I read Silicon Snake Oil, I saw that it was not at all the book I had expected. Like many of us, Stoll is better on the page than off the cuff.
Still, I found myself raising a few quibbles.
Seeking the culture of the net, Stoll finds "libertarian political leaning: Stay off my back and let me do whatever I please...not much informed dialog...name-calling" and way more male than female voices. He decries the stridency of debate, the self-centeredness of political action on the net.
Yes, but is it really useful to try to characterize the culture of the net today, when its population is doubling in size annually, when all of the new users are people not steeped in the current net culture, when the 1970s ARPANET culture that once characterized the net is visibly evolving into one subculture among many? Isn't it likely that the gender imbalance and political narcissism and insensitive macho stridency of the net merely reflect its past demographics, rather than some technological determinism? In other words, is the culture of the net really a function of the technology, or is it a function of who's on it?
Stoll: "...unlike a chisel, drill, or shovel, the computer demands rote memorization of nonobvious rules. You subjugate your own thinking patterns to those of the computer. Using this tool alters our thinking processes."
Yes, tools condition how we think about problems. When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. But software is a new kind of tool, distinguished by its malleability. (A computer is just a toolbox; it's surely software that Cliff means to be talking about, rather than the box.) No program conditions our thinking as rigidly as a hammer. Although it's important to consider how our (software) tools affect our thinking, surely this is less of a problem with software tools than with hardware tools like chisels, drills, shovels, hammers, or printing presses. The nonobviousness of the rules that programs impose is not a given; some people write good user interfaces. And what exactly does he mean by the thinking patterns of the computer anyway?
"How sad," Stoll says, speaking of the metaphorical world of cyberspace, "to dwell in a metaphor without living the experience." He underscores the nonphysicality of this world with a powerful phrase: "A hug without touching."
Yes, I'd hate to give up the tactile pleasures of life. We are all physical beings, but we're not just physical beings. We also have a mental existence. Things that happen online are not mere metaphors; we can meet people, learn, have our lives changed, our hearts broken, all without physical contact. We are, to some extent, creatures of thought as well as of flesh; you can argue about the balance, but you shouldn't deny the reality of mental life.
Okay, these are quibbles. It's a good book. My only serious gripe is that every time Stoll takes a position, he backs down from it. From someone who goes around catching spies, I was hoping for a hard-hitting exposé. Silicon Snake Oil is not a hard-hitting exposé. It does raise a lot of questions, and for those who haven't considered them before, that's worthwhile.
Michael Swaine
editor-at-large
MikeSwaine@eworld.com
Copyright © 1995, Dr. Dobb's Journal