GRAVITY TWENTY NINE -- Thursday, October 15, 1992

I hate deadlines. For most areas of life, they're useful and necessary, but when it comes to creating something altogether new, they're counter-intuitive. Creativists let their intuition set the agenda. They minimize their expectations. They don't set deadlines. This of course requires that they have the freedom to do so. For this they must be self-sufficient. They cannot have people or institutions breathing down their necks for results.

Now I'm forced down to two notes to sum up the previous twenty-nine because I'm reliant on the LUCC for this forum. They control the medium, and as I'm now only an alumni, my rights on this system have come to an end. Bob Barnes offered to send out new notes under his name. This is one solution, but not a good one. It's too much to ask for him to upload all of your replies to another system (such as CompuServe or a bulletin board), and then post my replies to your replies to each person individually, in addition to posting my daily notes.

So: as my account expires, so does this series. Several of you have expressed a desire for me to continue. I feel there's much more to be said, and had hoped to continue till the end of the year, but things happen for reasons. Perhaps this method of expression has reached the end of its usefulness. Perhaps it's time to hit the books and study up on all the things I don't know. Perhaps I'm wasting my time. At the very least, I might spend my time more effectively doing other things. Since I started this series, I've spent less and less time working on my novel. I've got very little time to spend on things that don't generate positive cash flow. Perhaps getting kicked off this network is a sign to quit computer science for a while and get on with the business of helping people feel less alone and more alive. There's always the possibility that I'm just kidding myself. Aside from Bob Barnes, I haven't heard a peep from anyone in the computer science department.

I promised to talk about counterpoint, but can't possibly do justice to it in the mood I'm in and with the space I've got.

So: I'm going to go watch the debates. Tomorrow's last note will be a long rambling inspired finish to all of this. I'm going to finally write about marketing the new medium. I'm going to tell you all about the Big Bang.