Note: According to a recent report by University of Texas professor Francis Fisher, low-income families will be among the prime beneficiaries of the proposed national information "super-highway." Unfortunately, Fisher's report fails to explain, in detail, how The Internet might help poor families improve their lives.

Scene: A cloudy winter morning in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Roberts family, who live below poverty level in four small rooms, awaken to a cold apartment.

MR. ROBERTS (upset) -- Oh no, the heat is off again! I'd better call the landlord.

MRS. ROBERTS (brightly) -- Honey, why not try the new computer instead? That nice man from the National Telecommunications and Information Agency said the Internet could open the door to a new world for us. Maybe you can use it to find out about the heat!

MR. ROBERTS (skeptically) -- Well, okay, but I've never tried one of those things before.

MRS. ROBERTS (optimistically) -- I'm sure you'll figure it out, dear. The man said we could access a full range of services on the broadband digital network through a simple graphical user interface!

MR. ROBERTS (unconvinced) -- That's good to know.

(Roberts climbs out of bed, puts on a robe, and walks into the living room. The computer, a government-surplus Zenith 80286 laptop, is sitting atop the VCR. He approaches the machine with trepidation.)

MR. ROBERTS (confused) -- Honey, did that nice man say anything about how to turn this thing on?

MRS. ROBERTS (recollecting) -- Why yes, he did. He said...he said there was a small rocker switch between the high-density diskette drive and the sleep-mode override switch.

(Roberts shrugs his shoulders, gropes for the switch, finds it, and flips it. The LCD screen lights up and the system beeps encouragingly. But then an error message is displayed: "Network Communications Parity Error 03846.")

MR. ROBERTS (baffled) -- I don't think this thing is working right.

MRS. ROBERTS (patiently) -- Why don't you ask Billy to help you? He uses computers at school.

(Roberts fetches his son from the children's room.)

BILLY (in pajamas, shivering) -- What's with the heat?

MR. ROBERTS -- Your mother says if we can get this computer working, maybe we can find out why the heat's off.

(The son, mystified and sleepy, crouches down behind the system and examines the snake's nest of cables and wires. He emerges a few moments later, looking disgusted.)

BILLY -- Gee Dad, no wonder this doesn't work. It's hooked up all wrong! Don't you know the difference between true FDDI, and Fast Ethernet cabling?

MR. ROBERTS (defensively) -- Don't look at me. It was the guy from the Cable TV Company who connected it. He gave us a two-for-one-deal.

BILLY (hopefully) -- Well, I'll see what I can do.

(The son climbs back behind the computer. The sound of cables being stripped and spliced can be heard. Soon he is finished.)

BILLY -- Okay, that should do it. Fire it up!

(Roberts switches on the power and the computer restarts, making an automatic connection with the national database. In minutes, father and son are staring at a "READY" prompt.)

BILLY (satisfied) -- Well, it's working, anyhow.

MR. ROBERTS (perplexed) -- But how do we...well, what about the heat?

BILLY -- I'm not sure, Dad. We use Dbase at school. This is different. Let me try something.

(The son types "go heat" at the prompt and presses the Enter key. Screen after screen of information scrolls by.)

BILLY (enthusiastically) -- Hey Dad, this is amazing! There's stuff about nuclear fission and fusion...the greenhouse effect...the laws of thermodynamics...a movie review of Body Heat with William Hurt and Kathleen Turner...

MR. ROBERTS (exasperated) -- But what about our heat?

BILLY -- Give me a break, Dad, I'm trying. You couldn't even turn the thing on!!!

(The son stops the display, and enters a search string containing his family's name, address, and apartment number.)

BILLY -- Well, it says here that you haven't paid the rent in three months, so the landlord shut off the heat, effective 5:30 this morning.

MR. ROBERTS (indignantly) -- Well, sure, I haven't paid the rent! How can I pay the rent when I'm out of work, and I can't find a job?

BILLY -- Hold on, Dad. Check this out.

(The son types in another search string, and reads the results.)

BILLY -- There's an opening here for a systems analyst with three years experience in C++, UNIX, and Visual Basic programming. But we'd have to move to Saudi Arabia...

MR. ROBERTS (resignedly) -- Forget it, son. Thanks.

(Roberts returns to the bedroom and climbs beneath the covers. Billy is at the keyboard, playing a game of interactive three-dimensional Tetris with a group of computer science students from Moscow University. Mrs. Roberts has thoughtfully placed a few more blankets on the bed.)

 

*** CURTAIN ***

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