【正文】 通過郵件發(fā)現(xiàn)妻子的隱情。Yet and all online municationis in fact something truly different。 it captures the essence of life at the close of the 20th century with an authority that few other products of digital technology can claim. Does the pace of life seem ever faster? Email simultaneously allows us to cope with that acceleration and contributes to it. Are our attention spans shriveling under barrages of new, improved forms of stimulation? The quick and dirty is made to order for those whose ability to concentrate is measured in nanoseconds. If we accept that the creation of the globespanning Internet is one of the most important technological innovations of the last half of this century, then we must give the living embodiment of human connection across the Netpride of place. The way we interact with each other is changing。 is both the catalyst and the instrument of that change.然而電子郵件，以及所有在線交流，實際上是一種全新的東西。在20 世紀末它以大多數(shù)別的數(shù)字技術(shù)產(chǎn)品所不具備的權(quán)威效力捕捉了生活的本質(zhì)。生活節(jié)奏是否越來越快？電子郵件在幫我們應(yīng)對這種加速的同時，又助長了加速的發(fā)生。我們的注意力持續(xù)時間在連珠炮似的新型的先進的刺激方式影響下，是否變得越來越短？快速而齷齪的電子郵件正是為那些注意力持續(xù)時間以毫微秒計的人群而預(yù)定的，如果我們承認遍及全球的因特網(wǎng)是本世紀后半葉最重要的技術(shù)創(chuàng)新之一的話，我們就必須賦予電子郵件人們通過網(wǎng)絡(luò)相互聯(lián)系的真實體現(xiàn)一席榮耀之地。人們互動的方式正式發(fā)生改變，而電子郵件既是改變的催化劑，又是改變的工具。The scope of the phenomenon is mindboggling. Worldwide, 225 million people can send and receive . Forget about the Web or emerce or even online pornography: is the Internet39。s true killer appthe software application that we simply must have, even if it means buying a $2,000 puter and plunking down $20 a month to America Online. 這一現(xiàn)象涉及面只廣令人驚嘆。全球范圍內(nèi)，有2 億2 千5 百萬人可以收發(fā)郵件，別提萬維網(wǎng)，電子商務(wù)或者在線色情內(nèi)容，電子郵件是因特網(wǎng)的真正殺手級應(yīng)用即我們必須具備的軟件設(shè)備，即使這意味著購置一臺2000 美元的電腦以及每月向美國在線支付20 美元的費用。Oddly enough, no one planned it, and no one predicted it. When research scientists first began cooking up the Internet39。s predecessor, the Arpanet, in 1968, their primary goal was to enable disparate puting centers to share resources. But it didn39。t take very long before they discovered that the most important thing was the ability to send mail around, which they had not anticipated at all, says Eric Allman, chief technical officer of Sendmail, Inc., and the primary author of a 20yearold programSendmailthat still transports the vast majority of the world39。s across the Internet. It seems that what all those top puter scientists really wanted to use the Internet for was as a place to debate, via , such crucially important topics as the best sciencefiction novel of all time. Even though Allman is now quite proud that his software helps hundreds of millions of people municate, he says he didn39。t set out originally to change the world. As a systems administrator at UC Berkeley in the late 39。70s, he was constantly hassled by puterscience researchers in one building who wanted to get their from machines in another location. I just wanted to make my life easier, says Allman.奇怪的是，這一切無人計劃，無人預(yù)見。當科學(xué)家們于1968 年最早策劃因特網(wǎng)的前身阿爾派網(wǎng)時，他們的首要目標是使不同的計算機中心分享資源。(2)“然而，不久他們便發(fā)現(xiàn)其最重要的作用是散發(fā)郵件，這一點他們根本沒有料想到?！卑＠锟? 奧爾曼，Sendmail 公司的技術(shù)主管他也是問世已有20 年之久的Sendmail 程序的主要編寫者，世界上絕大部分電子郵件現(xiàn)在仍然通過Sendmail 在因特網(wǎng)上傳送這樣說道。似乎那些頂級計算機科學(xué)家真正想做的，是把因特網(wǎng)作為一個通過電子郵件探討哪部科幻小說最棒之類重要話題的場所。盡管奧爾曼為他的程序系統(tǒng)能幫助成千上萬的人交流溝通頗感自豪，但他坦言他原本并沒有想要改變世界。作為70 年代末加州大學(xué)伯克利分校的系統(tǒng)管理人，他時常被計算機科學(xué)研究人員所煩擾，那些研究人員要求獲取另一幢打樓計算機里的電子郵件。“我只想使我的生活變得簡單?！眾W爾曼說。Don39。t we all? When my first child was born in 1994, seemed to me some kind of Promethean gift perfectly designed to help me cope with the irreconcilable pressures of newfatherhood and fulltime freelance writing. It saved me time and money without ever requiring me to leave the house。 it salvaged my social life, allowed me to conduct interviews as a reporter and kept a lifeline open to my farflung extended family. Indeed, I finally knew for sure that the digital world was viscerally potent when I found myself in the middle of a bitter fight with my motheron . Again, new medium, old story.我們何嘗不是呢？當我第一個孩子1994 年出生的時候，電子郵件對我來說好似普羅米斯的禮物，恰好幫我應(yīng)對初為人父的全職自由撰稿之間不可協(xié)調(diào)的壓力。它幫我省時省錢，又不需要我離開家門；他拯救了我的社交生活，讓我作為記者進行采訪，與此同時和分散在四處的親人保持通信聯(lián)絡(luò)的通暢。(3)其實，我最終確切的知道數(shù)字世界的力量不可小覷，是在我發(fā)現(xiàn)我與母親通過電子郵件爭吵不休的時候。又一次，新的工具演繹老的故事。My mother had given me an head start. In 1988, she bought me a modem so I could create a CompuServe account. The reason? Her younger brother had contracted a rapidly worsening case of Parkinson39。s disease. He wasn39。t able to talk clearly, and could hardly scrawl his name with a pen or pencil. But he had a puter, and could peck out words on a keyboard. My mom figured that if the family all had CompuServe accounts, we could send him . She grasped, long before the Internet became a household word, how online munication offered new possibilities for transcending physical limitations, how as simple a thing as could bring us closer to those whom we love.由于母親的原因，我比大多數(shù)人都更早地使用 。1988 年的時候，她為我買了一個調(diào)制解調(diào)器以便我創(chuàng)立一個CpuServe 賬戶。原因是她的弟弟患上了急速惡化的帕金森病。他不能清楚的說話，幾乎也不能用鋼筆或鉛筆寫他的名字。但他有一臺電腦，能夠在鍵盤上敲寫一個又一個的字。我母親認為如何家庭成員都有CompuServe 賬戶，我們便可以給他發(fā)郵件。It may even help us find those whom we want to love in the first place. Jenn Shreve is a freelance writer in the San Francisco Bay Area who keeps a close eye on the emerging culture of the new online generation. For the last couple of years, she39。s seen what she considers to be a positive change in online dating habits. Email, she argues, encourages the shy. It offers a semiriskfree environment to initiate romance, says Shreve. Because it lacks the immediate threat of physical rejection, people who are perhaps shy or had painful romantic failures in the past can use the Internet as a way to build a relationship in the early romantic stages.早在因特網(wǎng)家喻戶曉之前，我母親就領(lǐng)會到在線交流如何能為超越身體局限提供新的可能，像電子郵件這么簡單的東西如何能把我們和我們所愛之人拉得更近。電子郵件甚至能幫我們找到我們相愛之人。詹. 什里夫是舊金山海灣地區(qū)的一位自由撰稿人，她一直在留心觀察新在線一代的新興文化。在過去的幾年里，她目睹了在她看來是網(wǎng)上約會習(xí)慣的積極變化。她認為通過郵件上網(wǎng)約會能鼓勵那些天性害羞的人?！八峁┝艘粋€風險減低了一半的戀愛氛圍?！闭? 什里夫說，“這是因為網(wǎng)上戀愛沒有對外表產(chǎn)生抵觸的直接威脅，那些靦腆的或者過去有過痛苦戀愛經(jīng)歷的人可以在戀愛早期通過因特網(wǎng)建立關(guān)系?！盉ut it39。s not just about lust. Email also flattens hierarchies wit