EDITORIAL: A golden moment

ENIAC ushered in theENIAC ushered in theinformation age 50 yearsENIAC ushered in theinformation age 50 yearsago, and it's only fitting thatENIAC ushered in theinformation age 50 yearsago, and it's only fitting thatVice President Gore is hereENIAC ushered in theinformation age 50 yearsago, and it's only fitting thatVice President Gore is hereto mark this milestone.ENIAC ushered in theinformation age 50 yearsago, and it's only fitting thatVice President Gore is hereto mark this milestone.________________________________ ENIAC ushered in theinformation age 50 yearsago, and it's only fitting thatVice President Gore is hereto mark this milestone.________________________________Dear Vice President Gore: We know the "information superhighway" has been one of your top priorities over the past three years as a member of the Clinton administration. It's flattering that you accepted Penn's invitation to chair this commemoration of the birth of modern computing. We just wish more of us could see you speak. See, even though you'll be giving the keynote address in the largest auditorium on campus, administrators set aside only 500 tickets for the more than 30,000 students, faculty and staff here at the University. Still, we appreciate the momentousness of this occasion. After all, you wouldn't be reading this newspaper today -- or seeing the same stories on its pages -- if it weren't for engineers J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, ENIAC's developers. Many professors who teach large lecture courses wouldn't be able to disseminate information as easily, or communicate with their students as much as they now can without the aid of modems and microchips. And the personal World Wide Web home pages that give prospective students an idea of the Penn community's diversity give work-weary undergraduates a chance to be creative and release pent-up stress in a productive way. On a campus where some students check their electronic mail accounts before playing back the messages on their answering machines, where computer labs are filled with students surfing the Web to find facts as they write research papers and where electronic chats are often the only way to keep in touch with friends studying abroad or across the country, it's fitting to be honored by the presence of the vice president of the United States. But promise us that next time you're here, you'll give an address at 60,000-seat Franklin Field, OK? That way, we'll all be able to fit.