Mark Pesce: No kids of my own yet. What I have seen is that the kids often teach the parents and the parents seem delighted to learn.

Bluey: Seeing as most people torture their furbies don't you think this is a bad sign for kids growing up?

Mark Pesce laughs

Mark Pesce: Most ADULTS torture their Furbies. Most KIDS take care of theirs. I believe that things like the Furby can encourage people to explore resposible relationships and that other toys will come along which will do this in an even more profound way.

splitsplot: Do you think that the ability to communicate with other people face to face will be supplanted as an important skill by the ability to communicate 'online'?
medusa: Will computer people and non-computer people ever be able to socialise together normally?

Mark Pesce: I think that these children will develop two kinds of social skills. They'll have real world relationships and they'll have virtual relationships. They'll be able to sort through these more easily than we do.

declan: The idea of the collective unconscious was around for a long time. It has now become a reality with the Internet. What do you see as the next step for underground thought?

Mark Pesce: Gosh . . . erm . . . the next step, I would hope, would be the recognition of collective emergent behaviours mediated by electronic communication.

Katana: Do you have a theory concerning the sudden and drastic increase in technological advances in the last century . . . is it a natural progression, or is there a stranger possibility?