Two days ago while I was talking to someone at Windsor Chamber of Commerce, a remark was made about people in Sebastopol being stupid. It's unfortunate that such statements are made because some Sebastopol residents are outraged about the city's decision to ban sonic.net Wi-Fi. I was walking down Sebastopol's Main Street while asking a friend what he thought about the city council's decision, when a stranger sitting on a bench jumped in to answer. "It is stupid" he said. "They are stupid; They don't understand that there is a signal already all around us" He pulled out his keys with a hot-spot detector attached to the chain showing us signal strength. We nodded our heads and kept on walking. My friend says "That about sums it up". I respect people decision not to want to be exposed to 2.4Ghz frequency as much as I respect people who are afraid of the dark. I really do. Phobias are very real to those experiencing them.
We have to remember that radio frequency is all around us.
Most lights emit 60Hz.
The earth itself emits around 3kHz -8kHz signal.
Our brain emits a frequency (600Hz).
Our heart beats on an electrical signal from our brain (1.17Hz).
The SETI project is receiving signals from space across a huge spectrum.
To me, free Wi-Fi represents free sharing of knowledge. If you ever go to Sebastopol, you will quickly realize that people here are all about sharing. Sharing housing, sharing food, sharing bikes, etc... It's a community of openness. Most are open minded (except when absolute dogmatic statements are made). Sebastopl is home to O'Reilly Media. The poster child of open source book publishing. Zap(Zero Air Polution), an Electric Car pioneer of our time was founded in Sebastopol. Intuit's Quickbooks was started there also.
While the decision to cut Sebastopol's free internet access does not affect me, (my phone has EVDO internet connection and Wi-Fi, so I bridge the connection to re-broadcast my own hotspot for others can connect to), majority of residents are the ones at a loss. I think this can be summed up in 2 statements. They are loosing their option to connect. They are perceived as uneducated fools.
I think it would be interesting if there was a ban on electricity. It would be an experiment we can learn from.
