Breathing Machine: Leigh Alexander's memoir of adolescence on the early web

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2014/02/04/breathing-machine-leigh-alexa.html

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It’s the world of BBS systems, although not the early days of acoustic coupler modems that transferred text slower than you could read it. The BBS systems were already well in place and rumors about the “internet” were being passed around. AOL, Compuserv, GEnie, and other walled garden services were there and were priced in the stratosphere (a dollar an hour was cheap!).

We knew the whole thing was ready to explode, but the pieces weren’t quite ready yet, not until Netscape Navigator 1.0 Beta. That was the turning point.

But I can buy flying cars. They’re available today. They’re just not very common.
http://www.terrafugia.com/
http://www.hammacher.com/Product/12400
http://www.flyskyrunner.com/#tiptop

You see, it is because of the cyberpunk dystopia. Rising income inequality and poor governance mean these things just aren’t commonly affordable yet.

Nobody has ever made a flying car that is any good though, and the probably never will unless we discover cheap and reliable antigravity. The things that make a car good are not the same as the things that make a plane good, so you can have a good plane or a good car, but not both at once.

Of course once you have the good antigrav car, why would you ever bother with roads again?

So this is what Leigh Alexander has been up to! Bought it.

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