Technology

Scholars, social critics, and futurists Alvin and Heidi Toffler, authors of Future Shock (1970). They've gotten a lot of publicity lately because of their association with Newt Gingrich. Gingrich sought them out 20 years ago because he was fascinated by their ideas about the "intersection of history and the future." He suggested that every member of Congress read the Toffler's newest, called Creating a New Civilization: The Politics of the Third Wave.

Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg comments on metaphors used for the Internet -- which he says are all wrong.

Professor Nicholas Negroponte's new book "Being Digital" explores the future of new information technology and how it will challenge today's perceptions of the future. Ten years ago, Negroponte created the now famous and innovative Media Laboratory at MIT. He believes a fundamental change in how we live is coming with the newest computer technologies. He is also a popular columnist for Wired Magazine.

Steven Levy is an expert on computer technology, a Fellow of the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center in New York, and a columnist for the magazine "Macworld." His new book is "Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer that Changed Everything."

Journalists Michelle Slatalla and Joshual Quittner both work for Newsday. They've collaborated on a new book, called "Masters of Deception." It's about two rival gangs of teenage computer hackers in New York City, Masters of Deception and the Legion of Doom. The gangs, broke into phone company computers, downloaded confidential credit histories, and broke into private and corporate computer files. The rivalry was friendly until a computer remark by one hacker set off a "gang war."

John Lee is a former member of the Masters of Doom. Federal agents had been monitoring the rivalry between his gang and their rivals, The Legion of Doom. Lee was arrested and sent to jail.

Journalist Steven Levy, author of "Hackers," is one of the premiere writers on technology. He writes The Iconoclast column for "Mac World" magazine, and is a contributor to "Wired," "The New Yorker," and the "New York Times Magazine." He talks with Terry today about e-money — the electronic currency of the future. Levy has an article in the December issue of "Wired" about the computerization of money.

Computer viruses are computer users' worst nightmare, but a mystery to many of us. Computer expert Corey Sandler has written an easy-to-understand article about viruses in the September issue of "PC Computing." Today, Sandler explains how viruses work and talks to virogens, the writers of virus programs.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg talks about the computer language of the nineties, and looks at how new "information age" words sound remarkably like George Orwell's Newspeak.

Terry talks with New Yorker writer John Seabrook about the downside of electronic mail. Then she gets a response from Stewart Brand, the inventor of The Well, a computer conference system. . . Last January Seabrook wrote an article in the New Yorker magazine about Microsoft chairman, Bill Gates. Seabrook was flooded with electronic mail as a result, and to his surprise he was "flamed" for the first time. In Internet jargon, to be "flamed" is to receive an obscene or derogatory E-mail message. Seabrook said he'd never received anything like it before.

Commentator Jim Northrup looks at computers on Native American Reservations.

Writer Howard Rheingold. In his newest book, "The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier" (Addison- Wesley) he argues that although computer mediated communication has made it possible for people to have access to almost anything, it is dangerous as well. Rheingold says individuals must keep using the internet as a way to express their views or they will loose the ability to do so, as the government and large corporations become more aware of the technology's capabilities.

Computer activist Mitch Kapor. A new digital information highway is in the formative stages that will carry voice, data, and video services to everyone. We'll talk with Mitch Kapor, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which wants to make sure everyone has access to the new highway. Kapor also founded the Lotus software company.

Journalist David Sheff gained unprecedented access to the toy wizards at the Nintendo Corporation. His new book "Game's Over" explores the Japanese domination of the video-game market.

Gonzales has a new book about his love affair with flying, called "One Zero Charlie: Adventures in Grass Roots Aviation." He grew up listening to the stories his mother told of his father's last flight in a B-17 bomber over Dusseldorf in World War II. Gonzales is a commercial pilot who competes in aerobatics flying.

Rothfeder has just written a new book called "Privacy for Sale: How Computerization Has Made Everyone's Private Life an Open Secret." Using Dan Quayle and Dan Rather as examples, Rothfeder shows how easy it is to get access to a person's personal life -- such as a their birthdate, unlisted phone number, financial status, health status, and even what prescription drugs you take and where you shop -- all through a computer.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers an alternative to the question, "Can computers think?"

Computer programmer Richard Stallman. Stallman's a genius, he's been called "the best programmer who's ever lived", and he received one the MacArthur Foundation's so-called "Genius Awards," but he's become more widely known for his push to make computer programs freely accessible to everyone. Instead of software companies charging hundreds or thousands of dollars for programs and forbidding the purchasers from giving copies to other people, Stallman wants an unrestricted exchange of programs, and thereby the creativity that they represent.

Journalists Katie Hafner and John Markoff Their new book "Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier" (Simon & Schuster) is about the growing importance of computer networks, and the growing importance of computer crime.

Writer Howard Rheingold. Rheingold's new book, "Virtual Reality," is a look at the growing promise and impact of a radical new technology. By combining computers with sophisticated equipment (such as 3-D video glasses and gloves that sense how the wearer is moving their hands), it's possible to create the illusion that one is in another world, one that may exist only inside the computer. The technology has implications for everything from space exploration to entertainment, medicine to warfare. (The book's published by Summit Books).