Average Americans tend to see the Internet as safer and more secure than it is partly because they operate under a simplified notion of what the Net is.

Jeremy: As John Edwards might say, "Let's hear it for Average Americans!"

Me: No comment.

The cyberworld in which we live at the moment resembles the snarly Gibsonian version more closely than it does the harmless version put forth in commercials touting e-commerce. In this real cyberspace, skilled hackers attack large institutions — including the federal government — and equally brilliant ex-hackers try to fend them off. The two sides fight each other to a fragile standstill, break off, and go back at it again the next day. The realization that hackers sometimes win caused the Pentagon last week to cancel a plan that would have allowed military personnel and other Americans in 50 foreign countries to vote via the Internet.

The New York Times is tuning onto the same channel as Gibson.

The Hard Way to Learn That the Internet Is Not Disneyland