[extropy-chat] Email is for the old folk now

[Amara D. Angelica]

Hi, Eugen. It's a bit hard to explain, in this old-timer medium, what it's
like to be in *real* real time :) . For me, using Skype, and other real-time
tools, is similar to the exhilaration I felt when I first used email (in the
70s on Arpanet) and "computer conferencing" instead of letters and meetings,
and when I first browsed the Web in 1993 instead of libraries. Wow! I mostly
use Skype in text chat mode (which is self-archiving, but not via Google
Desktop Search yet, and there's no spam, btw), jumping to simultaneous voice
when needed, or video cam, or an instant voice conference call, or sending
files, or doing a Skypecast to 100 people, etc. (I just started using Dragon
NaturallySpeaking 9 Preferred, so I can create text at high speed right into
the Skype window). Skype allows me to work at home transparently,
"megatasking" (as I see the next step beyond wimpy multitasking) multiple
projects at random hours of the night with people around the world on tight
deadlines. That was formerly impossible for me to do with emails, which can
take hours for people to respond to and don't allow for quickly dealing with
problems interactively or spontaneous communication from a distance. Not
sure how the Whorfian hypothesis fits in (it's probably true: emoticons and
text abbreviations change how u think, if that's what u mean -- it seems to
speed things up) or how I'm playing with fire, but it's sure a lot of fun! 

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Eugen Leitl
Sent: Friday, August 04, 2006 3:58 PM
To: amaraa at gmail.com; ExI chat list
Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] Email is for the old folk now

On Fri, Aug 04, 2006 at 02:50:39AM -0400, Amara D. Angelica wrote:

> Emlyn, great to find another "real-timer," I like to call us. It's

If you email is not realtime, you're doing it wrong(tm). The advantage of an
email exchange over an reflector vs. IM is that 1) you don't see the other
party type 2) messages arrive <1 s
3) there's spam filtering 4) it's self-archived, in a web/world visible
format 5) I get to used my favourite text editor
6) quite a few other things.

I can type almost as fast as I can talk, and I don't get to keep searchable
transcripts of audio, not quite yet. Emlyns other points are all very good.

> increasingly difficult for me to relate to the "old-timers" (email 
> users) and have to spell out words - have you noticed? Skype me at
"amaraangelica"

I'm not buying Sapir-Whorf for a moment, but you're playing with fire there.

> any time.  - AA