[at-l] RnR's *worthwhile* cell phone questions

[wdlists at optonline.net (Walt Daniels)]

You left out the increased demand for more cell towers by people complaining
that they couldn't make a connection from various places. These are an
important contributor to loss of wilderness as most of them also have a road
and a land line. 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: at-l-bounces@backcountry.net 
> [mailto:at-l-bounces@backcountry.net] On Behalf Of Sloetoe
> Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2005 1:33 PM
> To: at-l@backcountry.net
> Subject: [at-l] RnR's *worthwhile* cell phone questions
> 
> Just a quick note to say that while I am not well-read on the 
> current version of at-l cell phone mania threads, I find 
> these questions rather even-handed and answerable by honest 
> hikers in ways not-at-odds with RnR. (For those of you new to 
> the list, RnR and I are not chums.) I don't wish to encourage 
> the haranging or the trolling; I just want to encourage 
> rational discussion of {well, here it goes} the real purpose 
> of the trail and the real impact of technologies trail users 
> employ in hiking it.
> 
> Really, I'm sane.
> sloenocellphonetoe
> 
>        1)   How do cell phones change the physical Trail? (ie
> increased shuttle activity and cell phone induced access points)
> Demographic: (Increased usage by cell phone lifeline types 
> who then skip the rest of what the Trail's about?)
> 
>        2)   How cell phones change the hike experience? (ie
> being able to call out at any time, or knowing you can.) 
> (Also, how daily contact changes the extended feeling of remoteness.)
>  
>        3)    How cell phone acceptance as a part of hiking gear
> changes the whole attitude of how people perceive the AT from 
> the outside. Is the Trail seen as a truly wild place and 
> challenge at that point, or is it now tamed by quick 
> communications allowing quick outside contact with remote 
> sections of the Trail?
> 
>       4)     And most importantly, how cell phone proliferation
> by plain numbers leads to an inertia that displaces important 
> Trail concepts literally existing in writing in ATC's 
> Guidelines. "Disconnectedness" is literally written in plain 
> words in the guidelines. Explain to me how the overt 
> 'connectedness' a cell phone provides jibes with this main Trail goal?
> 
> 
> 
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