Dear Readers --
When I started publishing NetFuture in 1995, I was driven by concern about how our society was rushing head-over-heels to get itself online during those early years of the Internet and the World Wide Web. There was, I thought, an urgent need for some cautionary words. Few such words could be heard at the time.
While the topics covered in NetFuture have evolved over the years, my sense of urgency about the unhealthy tendencies in our embrace of technology (and the science lying behind it) continues to be what drives me. It is, of course, a cliché to say that there's something soul-destroying about the science and technology coloring virtually every part of our lives. Everyone, I'm convinced, senses this destructive effect at one time or another, but it's not often that the vague intimations rise to the level of anything like clear apprehension or a positive re-orientation toward the future. I would like to think that NetFuture is one place where the cliché is avoided and at the same time light is thrown on the underlying issues, whether they have to do with the functioning of the human heart, the role of computers in education, the promise and temptation of robots, or the rediscovery of organic wholeness bearing on the so-called mechanisms of genetic inheritance.
While I cannot know your reasons for reading the newsletter, presumably for most of you it is because you find something of value in it. And if this is so, I am asking you to consider what would be a fair exchange for this value.
Charity is not the point of such a request; it has to do, rather, with a proper valuation of things. It is, of course, your judgment to make; I only ask that you make it, and not leave it -- as so much is left in the online world -- half-considered and neglected.
I am grateful beyond words for all the support NetFuture has received from some of you over these past few years. I hope this will continue. But even more, I hope that those of you who have never made a conscious and firm decision in the matter one way or the other will do so now. It is never too late, and your donation now will help NetFuture to continue over the coming year.
Our society faces numerous grave issues in the months ahead. I look forward to sharing with you some perspectives on these issues that you will not likely find from other sources. And I thank you for inviting me to do so.
Please help with your contribution to secure the future of NetFuture.
Thank you.
Steve
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