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. His article about the lawless frontier of computer networks appears in the May 30, 1994 issue of the magazine, "My First Flame." STEWART BRAND is an inventor and designer who founded the Whole Earth Catalog, and The WELL, (the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link) a computer teleconference system.

Copyright 1994 Fresh Air