"One
entrant in this year's presidential race is spanning his own digital divide,
using the latest in real-time computer animation to emerge as the first
virtual candidate. Uncle Duke, the Doonesbury comic strip character seen
in 1,400 newspapers worldwide, has grown from a flat, cigarette-holder puffing
cartoon into the three-dimensional, political trash-talking star of his
own Web site (www.duke2000.com),
complete with virtual smoke. The animation was created by Dotcomix, a San
Francisco-based Internet studio. For virtual Duke, an actor wears a body
suit With motion-capture detectors while a puppeteer manipulates facial
expressions. Says executive producer Buzz Hayes: 'We could apply the same
technology to Bush and Gore-to make them more animated, too.'
In an exclusive interview with TR contributing writer Steve Ditlea, candidate
Duke unveiled his views on high tech-via campaign manager Garry Trudeau.
TR: Are you taking positions regarding technology?
DUKE: No, my campaign is faking positions regarding technology, just like
the other campaigns. The difference is we're upfront about it. I mean, who's
got time to keep up? Just ask Bill 'an Internet browser is a trivial piece
of software' Gates.
TR: What do you think about the digital revolution?
DUKE: I'm for it. I can lay out my agenda, spam voters and sell junk from
my Web site all without leaving my campaign headquarters at the Coon Rapids
E-Z-Rest Motor Court. And I'll be selling all my ambassadorships on eBay.
TR: How significant is the 'new economy'?
DUKE: Well, so far, my campaign is only being sponsored by old-economy companies
- Absolut, Keebler Cookies and most recently Brown &Williamson, which
has signed on as the Official Nicotine Delivery System of the Duke2OOO Campaign.
We'd be open to new-economy sponsorships, provided they pay in cash - I
won't be held hostage to some socially impaired teenager's ability to close
mezzanine financing in a bear market.
TR: Should Internet transactions be taxed?
DUKE: Who talks about new taxes during a campaign? Serious candidates only
talk about tax cuts - free money. And I've already said I'll double whatever
anybody else offers. I'm not a fringe player on this issue.
TR: How do you feel about censorship of the Net?
DUKE: Look, we should have learned long ago that one person's porn is another
person's social life. Now, obviously there are strong individual cases to
be made for censorship - MarthaStewart.com, iVillage and such - but no one's
forcing you to log on. And as for all those bomb-building Web sites, do
you really want to live in a country that restricts the rights of the legitimate,
law-abiding sport bomber? I'm just not comfortable with that.
TR: Are you in favor of human cloning?
DUKE: The potential for abuse is enormous. History would never forgive us
if we were to produce another Linda Tripp."
(Simulation, Technology Review, July/August 2000).
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