Copy

Monday, 14 August 2000
You're looking at a copy. Yes, the original is somewhere on a webserver.

That's fine, as

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the copy is just as good as the original, well most of the time at least. cut, copy, paste and undo Hm, this raises questions. What is an original? Well, most Nut's Weeklies start their life as a copy of the previous one, a combination of Save As and Copy & Paste.

The file at the webserver is just another copy, uploaded once from my laptop. IBM ThinkPad So, it the original on that laptop? Hm, that depends too. The original of old Nuts was lost, during a first computer crash. Since that time, Nut's are based on a backup, well a copy of the backup, restored to the laptop. And that backup is by definition a copy itself. Since the second computer crash all Nuts are based on a copy of the files on the webserver, which were copies in itself already. O dear, o dear, things start to get complicated here.

I do have originals of some Nuts, pencil scribbles on paper. Are those scribbles the true originals? Hm, most of those scribbles are copies of ideas that have been wandering inside my head for quite some time. And I don't know how original those ideas are. Most likely they are partly copies of other peoples words, own experiences and interpretations.

It doesn't matter though. I'm not too much of an original myself anymore. The body renews itself every few months. So, this author, including his memories, are a copy of those from a months ago. An you too, my dear reader, aren't original anymore either.

So, there is only one conclusion for me to draw: originality has vanished. There isn't an original, at least not anymore. You are a copy, watching a copy, written by a copy of the Nth degree.

The debate on clones hushed here in Holland. Well, that shouldn't be a surprise. Today's copies obviously have a different point of view that those of a few years ago.

Till next week!
Nut