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    a- d e i d g m i u t n a d l    h. r   o f a y d r   e m - a   p

  In its very wide band, or spectrym, as you might say, we see the ever deve-
loping Information Superhighway come closer to a reality.  In this reality,
which my three month new cousin shall surely see upon reaching my age, vast
libraries of ones and zeroes, all in the grasp of anyone who wishes it.  It
is possibly the zenith of a president's tenure, holding the promise of power
and shining with the iridescence of a mystic crystal ball.  Our government
promises this with a smile and a many times a wink, honey glazing their sugar
child.  So vital is the project, as it will hold and regulate the very uncer-
tain future of telecommunications.  So vital is the regulation, as it will
govern information, held in an iron fist behind an iron curtain, labeled de-
mocracy.
  It is a very interesting thing, this evolution of the telecommunications
universe.  No doubt it already exists, though not as a Superhighway.  In-
stead it is a more veritable ensemble of backroads and side alleys.  The
electric Bulletin Board System in itself is a gathering place of the com-
puter literate and knowledgeable, a convening and an interaction in itself.
As there are many of such places, with austere names which show reflection
of its attitude: Sanctuary; The Citadel; The Towering Inferno; Hellhole,
it becomes a virtual network of information in itself, more intricate, and
possibly less organized than the weave of a house spider.  This already ex-
isting web of the computer underground and higher ground, illegal and legal
transmissions respectively, allows the trucking of terabytes of information
into a spreading of the masses.  A grab bag, regardless of free or not free,
for anyone's taking.
  Imagine then, as you will, the shiny new Information Superhighway.  As a
regulation of what is already there, the government will in all probability
link with all BBS's and enforce the means to keep them and respective infor-
mation in line.  If they decide to give every other citizen a terminal, as
per exciting AT&T commercials, to interact with a newly established network
aside from already existing networks, the long silent, or possibly unnoticed,
Big Brother will find its way back home.  Already proposed is a bill to pro-
hibit the act of being on-line and drunk at the same time, or in other words
drunk-driving on the Information Superhighway.  Obviously the only way to
check for the sobriety of an user is to survey and consequently tap a phone
line, under the suspicion of drunkenness.  If software piracy is found, then
they have reason to tap the line once more under suspicion of software piracy.
Irony rears its head as the means of witness an act oc crime cannot prosecute
by the same means.  This Irony is commonly referred tc by its intensely generic
euphemism, the Judicial System.
  An option unmentioned thus far would be the ever (in)fimous Internet.  The
only concrete and existing system of regulation, however exploited and adver-
tised, it is nothing more than an addressing system.  It sends mail to over
twenty million people throughout the world, through set protocols and ever
changing standards.  The true Superhighway, is it would be, would be more
of an enhancement to the Internet than anything else.  An Internet address
would be as commonplace as a telephone number; a modem used as frequently
as a phone.  This may also, reluctantly, hold a place in the minds of poli-
ticians.  Though the only thing that has come from the advent of the Super-
highway is a barrage of stupid, yet increasingly cute expressions having to
do with driving and highways, which I despise as much as my hypocrisy.
  The point, though elusive, sits clearly behind the babble.  In the frenzied
rush to be on top of the computer teleworld, the government has compromised
its people once again.  Where the goal has been to bring a people to the next
level of communications, it has ultimately slowed and hampered an already evol-
ving system.  With the Information Superhighway, the government has sold us a
lemon.  Though standing behind the very excited politicians and the very ex-
cited bureaucrats, it tastes of a chocolate-covered lemon.þEFþ