"
"Here's the pitch," Alan said, taking a sip of the thick, steaming
coffee the Greek handed to him in a minuscule cup. He shivered as the
stuff coated his tongue. "Wow."
The Greek gave him half a smile, which was his version of roaring
hilarity.
"Here's the pitch. Me and that punk kid, Kurt, we're working on a
community Internet project for the Market."
"Computers?" the Greek said.
"Yup," Alan said.
"Pah," the Greek said.
Anders nodded. "I knew you were going to say that. But don't think of
this as a computer thing, okay? Think of this as a free speech
thing. We're putting in a system to allow people all over the Market --
and someday, maybe, the whole city -- to communicate for free, in
private, without permission from anyone. They can send messages, they
can get information about the world, they can have conversations. It's
like a library and a telephone and a caf?© all at once."
Larry poured himself a coffee. "I hate when they come in here with
computers. They sit forever at their tables, and they don't talk to
nobody, it's like having a place full of statues or zombies."
"Well, *sure*," Alan said. "If you're all alone with a computer, you're
just going to fall down the rabbit hole. You're in your own world and
cut off from the rest of the world. But once you put those computers on
the network, they become a way to talk to anyone else in the world.
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