Dear {Insert Name}: Vote for Me!

When talking about the evolution of politics and technology, it helps to give a little history. Okay, a lot of history. The human body is, in most senses, the same as it was 50,000 years ago (oh, those cravings for carbs!), and the workings of the human brain haven't evolved significantly in 5,000 years. That's when we learned to better process language, and societies flourished. Seventy-five years ago, television was invented -- the first form of virtual reality. Now the average American watches over four hours of television a day, spending much of that time completely ignoring the fact that he or she is sitting in front of a box. Fifteen years ago, geeks started widely using the Internet. Five years ago, even tech-haters did. In 2004, the convergence of technology and politics rose and shone, like a prima ballerina taking her first star turn. By the 2008 election, that technology will have disappeared.

No, this is not some post-apocalyptic fantasy. It's simply a statement that, in 2004, people still thought of technology as a thing-in-itself. By the year 2008, tech tools will be transparent, integrated into our lives. Just as we embraced television (perhaps a bit too closely), we will give new information delivery systems a central place in our lives. Campaigns and officeholders will be able to speak as directly to constituents, via the media, as if they were standing live in front of them. And citizens, in California and America at large, will be better able to speak back.

In no small part due to the way we've evolved (or failed to), humans tend to think of information technology as an extension of the human consciousness. Stanford University communications professor Clifford Nass has done extensive research into the way humans perceive computers as human actors. In one experiment, test subjects first took a quiz on a computer. Then, they were asked to go back to a computer -- that one, or a nearby one -- and say how well the initial computer had administered the quiz. People who went back to the same computer gave higher grades than those who went to another computer. The test subjects were using flattery or exercising tact -- in their dealings with a mass of chips, plastic and wires! Most of us have emotional reactions to both the delivery and content of new media, from the frustration when big files can't seem to squeeze through the pipeline to a craving -- sometimes addictive -- to get more email and thus more "human" contact.

As online technology moves from wired desktop computers to wi-fi enabled laptops and handheld PDAs, the technology becomes more portable and less intrusive. Information and its emotional subtext are more likely to hit their mark.

I remember getting my first laptop in the early