Project UFO/Project UFO (Disk 3 of 6).adf/FORWARD.TXT

Text File | 1980-01-09 | 19KB | 599 lines

      ***********************  EXPLORING   **********************

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                                  in
      *********************  EVERYDAY LIFE  ********************

                                  by
                             T.B. PAWLICKI
                    ______________________________
                   I                              I
                   I      (C) COPYRIGHT 1988      I
                   I              by              I
                   I         T.B. Pawlicki        I
                   I        843 FORT STREET       I
                   I  VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA  I
                   I           V8W 1H6            I
                   I            CANADA            I
                   I______________________________I

**********************  FORWARD  **********************


     Thank you for participating in a pioneering publishing

venture.


     Mass communication has progressed through four major

transformations. The first revolution separated the author from

his audience by means of writing; the LITERATI became a secret

society of COGNOSCENTI that used its exclusive knowledge to

dominate the ignorant masses. Modern democracy began when movable

type made it possible for a message to be received by everyone

who could read. Recently, radio broadcasting countered the first

and second revolutions by delivering messages to everyone who

can't read; television is likely to be the MATADOR of democracy.

The capital cost of printing plants and broadcasting studios

limits the messengers to parties of power and wealth, whose

messages are determined to maintain the STATUS QUO --- natcherly

--- especially their own status plus all the more quid they can

quo. The tragic consequence of mass communications has been the

dissemination of tendencious knowledge to enslave the minds of

mankind, rather than free us to experience our own ignorance

until we learn better. A truly free press for truly free minds

could not exist until the personal home photocopier brought

publishing within the economic capacity of every person with a

message and postage. As well as reducing the cost of copying to a

few pennies per kilowatt hour, the computer completes the

revolution of mass communications by restoring audience feedback.

As camels and soups show, quality goes down as participation

increases, but participation is better for the participators;

eventually, participators support higher standards.


     Since authors began to write, instead of speaking directly

to their audience, ideas have flowed in one direction, only. It

is, however, as impossible to teach without learning as it is to

learn without teaching, which is why so little is learned from

reading books. For the first time since the advent of writing,

the computer makes it possible for readers to contribute to the

discourse and transform a lecture into a dialogue, a

conversation, a seminar, a workshop, a global town meeting.


     Finding a publisher for my first book, How To Build A
                                            --------------
Flying Saucer, took nearly ten years; nearly ten more years
-------------
passed while my market grew to critical mass by word of mouth.

Now people are reading my first book as if the ideas were as hot

as tomorrow's news, but a whole generation has grown up to

drinking age --- and another generation has died of cirrhotic

livers --- since I was working out those early insights. My

ideas develop so rapidly that I had to rewrite the manuscript

every year until it was published. Once printed, however, the

printing plates are as immutable as graven stone. As soon as I

began to write my personal correspondence on computer, I

realized that this electronic medium keeps discoveries alive and

growing through pooling contributions in ways not feasible by

any other means of communication. The entire industry is built

by fielding half-baked ideas and then improving them with

consumer feedback, as it goes along; no other industry advances

so fast, and in no other industry do the suppliers lag behind

the advances made by their own demanders. And thus it came to

pass as I was speaking to the Global Sciences Congress, held at

Denver in August, l987, that the idea came to me to offer my

audience my current manuscripts explaining HYPERSPACE to
                                           ----------
everyone who would participate by also sharing their ideas on

computer discs.


     Ideally, a book of this nature should be transmitted over

wires to be downloaded by Special Interest Groups on

international networks. In the present state of the art,

however, computers still cannot replace paper. This

unrealistically jealous industry has not yet made files

universally readable, like sound and film tapes, and it is still

impractical to transmit text formats and illustrations through

wires. Even after the computer industry gets its parameters

together, all of us early worms will remain stuck with our

capital investments. Therefore, I have decided to print my

manuscripts onto discs for postal distribution to the computers

being used now.
           ---

     This enterprise will succeed only if each reader will make

at least two copies and pass them on. Some readers may not know

three other people with compatible computers, so it is hoped

that readers with the most popular computer models will pass on

to their computing friends as many copies as they feel this

publication is worth. If anyone can make conversions to

unpopular computers, a copy returned to me will be passed on to

other readers out in left field.


     This brings us to the matter of copyrights. Most people
                                     ----------
believe that anyone may freely copy published material in any

numbers for any purpose as long as the copies are not sold for a

profit (*1).  If legal process were not so expensive, a lot of

copycats would learn how very mistaken they are. Copyright

entitles the author to assign legal permission to make copies and

set the conditions of contract. Although I am assigning all my

readers the right to make copies and distribute this literature

freely, the formal copyright remains mine. Any party enterprising

enough to reproduce these discs by the hundred for sale at a

profit will very likely interest my attorney to offer a royalty

contract as a more attractive alternative to a court ordered

remedy. Any party that fails to include my byline and copyright

notice will be taken to task for the more serious offense of

plagiarism.
----------

     Heckling is a part of all public speaking, and most of the

fun. If hecklers had a fair chance to give their opinions, many

of them would have more to say than the speakers, and some may

have better ideas. The only way a reader can add his two bits

worth to a discourse is by scribbling in the margins of public

library books. Anything that can be done will be done, so

hecklers will always be with us, and so will graffiti, along

with carefully considered letters to editors. Since it is so

easy to add and subtract opinions to a magnetic publication, a

lot of opinionated readers are going to do it. The main purpose

of this venture is to turn audience feedback into an advantage

--- for everyone --- by encouraging constructive criticism

guided by rules for fair comment within the laws governing

copyright and public utterance.


     By the nature of this medium, this publication is going to

be shared by an unknown number of readers. Those who want to

give us the benefit of their superior information are asked to

follow these rules. On those matters that readers can wait for,

please append your comments to the end of the file. If you feel

that your information needs to be interjected, then mark the

beginning and end of your contribution with lines or stars.

Please include your name and the date so that we know whom to

credit. If you find mistakes of fact, your immediate correction

is eagerly asked for. Critics looking for an argument improve

their chances by including their addresses. If you are so

offended by some statements that you are compelled to make

deletions, please mark your censorship with a notice of the

amount of text you deleted, in numbers of lines or bytes, and

include your name and date to prove the courage of your

convictions. Anyone who wants to retain his copyright on

contributions is advised to include notice of their legal claim

so that no one will assume that all commentaries and

contributions are in the public domain. Expect disputes;

democracy is not for weak stomachs and faint hearts.


     Depending on the number of readers who distribute more

copies, and the number of contributions added --- not to mention

subtracted --- my original text will be unrecognizable by the

time this print passes through a dozen recopies. There is no way

to know whether all contributors have marked the changes they

make. Neither is there any way to know whether they have their

facts correct, unless they cite their sources for reference.

Furthermore, these discs are communicated person-to-person

through private, first-class mail, making the message into a

conversation between acquaintances rather than a publication to

strangers; it is permissible to say things in private and

personal mail that is regarded as unethical, if not illegal, in

public utterance. Therefore, all readers must always remember

and bear in mind that the copy they are reading is a

BOUILLABAISSE stirred by many cooks, not a FILET MIGNON SAUTEED

by a chef. Unless you receive a copy that you can certify as

unaltered from the original, do not believe anything that

offends your common sense and don't hold the original author or

signed contributors responsible for statements and/or context

that may have been altered by hecklers who prefer to remain

anonymous (*2). My own editors have altered my manuscripts until

I could hardly recognize my publications as my own compositions

--- usually for the better. If some party suffers personal

injury from this special interest group disc, everyone who

receives it becomes suspect. This is an utterly novel kind of

case for the courts to rule on, not quite so much privileged

privacy as a closed computer conference but still a one-on-one

private correspondence. I dare say that honest mistakes will be

excused with a pointed finger, but deliberate malice producing

suffering to an identifiable person, when proven unjustified in

these litiginous times, will be liable to legal penalties. We may

protect ourselves from slanderous or obscene remarks by scanning

each disc immediately before mailing, to check that no one else

has run the copy and added comments disgraceful to polite

company.


     I have enough discoveries in my head to keep me writing

full time for ten years --- I should live so long. In the

likelihood that my insurance is vastly underrated, I am

curtailing my research and graphic design in order to put as

much of my time as I can into getting my ideas written.

Unfortunately, the charter members of this publishing revolution

will receive bare bones of text, a dearth shared by everyone who

buys Version 1.0 of any program. The economy of electronic

publication, however, enables me to update my text whenever I

get a break, add animated illustrations in colour, and enliven

the text with creative layouts in future editions. Most

important of all, as copies eventually find their way back to me

with accumulated reader input, new editions can be issued with

the latest and most extensive information --- better than

anything I can do. This publication can be considered as a book

written by its best qualified readers. In order to receive

updates and new books, all readers will have to send me their

names and addresses, regardless whence they received their

copies. Please bear in mind that my resources are exceedingly

limited, and expect to wait like a Christian for me to follow up

in my spare time. I expect this enterprise to be taken over by

more resourceful enthusiasts.


     The definitive version of this disc book will be written on

an APPLE IIc, in ASCII files; the animated illustrations will be

rendered with DAZZLE DRAW and FANTAVISION --- if I can't find

more practical graphics programs. I invested in the APPLE system

because I believed all the press reports that the computer field

has more APPLE trees planted than anything else. I am deceived;

MS-DOS is the most widely used operating system on this scene.

This original version, however, is written on a KAYPRO II

operated by CP/M 2.2 in WORDSTAR 3.3. files. It will take me

time to convert WORDSTAR files to ASCII, and then convert both

to MS-DOS. The few graphics included on this disc are drawn with

keyboard characters. Since the ASCII code is standardized only

for alphanumeric characters, computers using different keyboard

codes will produce surprising characters --- the trouble is not

in the disk or your computer.


     As long as computers remain inconvenient to read in bed or

on public transportation, I shall concurrently try to find

publishers for paper versions of my disc books. These discs hold

the beginning of a 75,000 word paper book, heavily illustrated

with animated illustrations included on disc, under the title

TIME TRAVEL --- The Secret Science of The UFOs. Availing myself
-----------     ------------------------------
of the impermanent and quasiconversational nature of magnetic

correspondence, I have included many speculations and tangents

on these disks to stimulate response; these unessential essays

will be deleted from the paper version. The heaviest reading is

the Second Chapter; once you establish the theoretical

foundation laid in my repetitive manner of logic, the rest of

the book is freeway, much like the First Chapter. For the first

time, the theory and engineering of time travel are explained in

sufficient practical detail for young physicists to begin

constructing their own Philadelphia Experiments in their home

workshops; at least one researcher I know is doing it already,

in California. Let me know whether you are willing to buy

TIME TRAVEL --- The Secret Science of The UFOs at a prepublication
-----------     ------------------------------
price of $10 or a postpublication price of $16. Send no money. I

only want to know whether there is a market for a paper book

before I invest more than I can afford to print it. I apologize

for my inability to acknowlege subscribers to this paper book by

individual letters, as they are received; at a dollar a letter,

the cost of mailing is prohibitive. Subscribers will be notified

individually to write their cheques when the response is

sufficient to underwrite publication. In the meantime, enquiries

from royalty publishers are welcome. Zees is a bootstrap

production, Dollink --- my apologies to Zsa Zsa.


                         END OF FORWARD


*1   This is the belief taken by the Government of the United
States, especially its Public Broadcasting System. Assuredly,
what the lord hath given us starving authors with one hand, he
taketh away by truckloads driven by the other. With legal
protection like we got, we are better off with our pirates.
Unless you are a government authorized freebooter, however, the
first hand lays down the law.

        Readers who copy programs published in magazines are
subject to the same legal strictures. The magazine publishers do
not assign its readers the right to make copies of their text to
give to their friends, much less sell.


---------------------------------------------------------------

*2   The most heavily edited and censored book in the world is
the Holy Bible, yet its readers are convinced every copy is the
original and every last Word of God. Evidently, God has
afterthoughts --- The New Testament. The Holy Koran is an even
later Word of the very same God compiled from the very same
orginal Scriptures. And don't forget the equally Holy Book of
Mormon. I can relate to Him; I am also compelled to rewrite my
original words innumerable times as I get my act together.

     I believe the Bible; it is the publishers I question. I
have no doubt that God inspires all His chosen publishers, but I
wonder whether He chose every publisher; after all, the Bible is
in public domain. If God inspired the American Constitution, in
which I believe more than the Bible, He is the Source of the
First Amendment --- entitling Larry Flint to turn a dollar in
the pre-eminently profitable religious market. It isn't belief
in the Bible that fomented the most vicious wars, but belief in
the infallible veracity of the publishers.