[PLUG-TALK] Re: PLUG-talk and other Filters?

GLL guy1656 at ados.com
Fri Mar 18 23:13:47 UTC 2005


: > GLL> I wouldn't mind at all if an automated system simply bounced all
: > GLL> "family radio-unfriendly" words. I really don't think we'd lose
: > GLL> that much - what would we lose that was truly necessary?
: >
: > The beautiful thing here is that *you* can moderate with your *own*
: > filter.  That lets you adapt it precisely to your own sensitivities.

I don't think that technology exists yet. (See below.)

: > You don't have to rely on everyone sharing them. Nor do you have to
: > convince everyone else to share them. The power is in your hands to
: > solve your own problem.

If I an reading you correctly, you're saying "if you don't like it the way it 
is now, just unsubscribe/turn it off." That's giving up on the problem, not 
really solving the problem. 

The other, effective option is only naiscent: Google is already offering to 
'translate this page.'  I guess it will take another three or four 
generations of computing and software evolution, but if it's everybody's OWN 
onus, then it would be neat to have software each one of us users could 
easily tune, so as to bawdlerize the world of communication to fit each of 
our preferred modes of discourse. You might also have dialect re-processors 
and even grammar and spelling correctors on the front-ends, or inputs rather 
than our current selection of spell-checkers, which operate on (impending) 
outputs.

An intriguing effect of tools like these would be that unless people regularly 
used a tool allegorical to "View Source," no writer would be exaclty sure how 
his works were being read. As an example, in the previous sentence I allowed 
the masculing gender to subsume the feminine, which to me is not a sexist 
affront, it's merely correct grammar, and the rest of the world just has to 
deal with the fact that I think and write in Standard English. But some other 
recipient may have an 'inclusive language' re-translator to adjust to his own 
sensitivities.

The net effect would be even less common culture between one stranger and the 
next. For example, as we move from watching 'The NEWS' on three VHF channels 
in the 60's and 70's to cable TV,** to reading blogs more and MSM less, we 
are all tuning and refining the filters on our world of inputs to more 
exactly match the preferred hues of our own rose-colored glasses.

Just like Windoze "themes," could we eventually 'edit' streaming TV 
programming on the fly? How about an ante-bellum 'theme' we could apply to 
all our TV shows at once - changing all the costumes and even dialects on the 
fly? Could we turn 'Enterprise' into a sod-buster? Could 'hip-hop' be a 
theme? Let's apply it to 'The Beverly Hillbillies.' {BSOD!} 

:-D

- GLL

** I remember a new age of freedom, when THE PRESIDENT would come on TV, and 
you actually COULD turn the dial past enough channels to make him GO AWAY. 
What a feeling! You could 'escape.'

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