From: "Michael G. Koopman" Subject: Re: The Wild Palms mailing list Date: Fri, 21 May 1993 12:47:03 CDT I do not wish to keep the Wild Palms thread alive, but two quickies. First, a partial retraction: I panned the thing after #1, missed (thankfully) #2 and caught (gratefully) #3 of the 4 installments. After #3 I retract the implication that the series was not worth analysis and was not art. It is art, TV art, still meets the formula but changes genre (sub-genre?), therefore is reflective on TV (sitcom), itself. Three also revealed that it is multi-threaded, though I would not dare multi-faceted. I suspect the baby-boom generation POV is extensional as opposed to intensional. Also, #1 did have the TV personality that saves the worst TV Sitcom formula - (saving) Grace, the Tim Conway of SitCom or the Red Skelton of Var-eye-ity. But, sorry LA Law lover's, China Beach is RL, not! The continuing Age of Enlightenment in the present Renaissance of art and thought theme does not make WP a "Gulliver's Travels" except in its depiction of Lilliputia TV_Land, Good Night Ubu. The temporal parallel to all ages of mankind is nil. I gained a fuller appreciation for the constraints placed on TV "programmers" who must present the SOA in formula TV, good work there. The show is CyberPunk-ish, at least it contains a Cyberia, of sorts. The best line is "Beam me up, Scotty" and the writer must have read the crib notes on most of the cyberpunk FAQ references, but not the complete works. So, some credit for homework on the 'former' counter-culture, new mainstream, but a big bogocite for the lack of any serious connection with, at a minimum, the last two generations effected, though never children of TV. When Timothy Leary starts selling bogusware in Mr. Popeil's timeslot my existensionalist innards will hit the wall By the way, the evil Senator (Asimov's Mule?) would learn the lessons of history as well or better than his opposition. Try reading comp.soc.futures for one month+ to realize that there are bogus neo-nazi (joke) posts and honest to goodness ones, really. Can't wait for the flake liberal, big finale with the _Dune_ Messiah was Black crescendo where good conquers evil. Buck Rogers we love ya' Second, the VR technology depicted: The technology depicted is very "futuristic" with apparent attention to detail. The bed moving under the hologram is not consistent with weightless holograms but is consistent with a technology permiting a physical resistance as emphasized in installment 1, Church Windows scene. A whole lot cheaper to film, too :) The question about the technology is still, what is VR, and what isn't. I feel that more exposure for futuristic systems out beyond the current reality of the technologies is a benefit in helping the masses comprehend near future RL involvements with existing technologies. Wild Palms is not sensationalist hype about today's VR and might not be too far from realistic VR technologies of 2007. Enough, even I am tired of my own voice, Mike "I've said too much, I haven't said enough ..." R.E.M.