Tuesday, November 28, 2006

The internet is AMAZING!

I love this Age of Information. Anything and everything is possible. Friends in distant lands, answers to the day’s wonderings, books, images and music are but a double-click away.

This little gem allows me to watch films, documentaries and animation without Netflix, LimeWire or the telly. Nice.

But, seriously, I do believe that the Internet is the defining thing of our age, and I do think it’s more than about just getting quick-fix media-hits from the online syringe. I sometimes think of Wikipedia as a metaphor for the Internet. Both are fantastic resources because they are open-source and available for all to use, to edit and to create at no (or little) cost. Both serve as a barrier to ignorance and allow all to share in knowledge and information. It is for this reason that I believe free-internet access, preferably wi-fi, should be a right, not a privilege, for the people of the world.

God didn’t make men equal, the Internet did.

5 comments:

john taylor said...

I'm still enjoying the photos of Lilianna.

Hope all is well.

Papa John

Anonymous said...

I tend to agree with the general idea that the free flow of ideas and information is a great equalizer.

However, in the long-term, evolutionary sense, it could have negative consequences (and by this I mean, like, in thousands of years).

Species develop fastest in small, isolated groups. Large, interconnected groups are much less conducive to evolutionary progress.
With the advent of the internet, and the socialization suggested by you, the progress of human behavioral adaptation will likely slow to a snail's pace.

Now, whether this is better, or worse, is up for grabs.
I'm just saying it's almost a certainty, given how evolution has worked for four billion years.

Plus, we do have socialized internet in America. Pretty much every town, no matter the size, has a public library. And 93% of the public libraries in America have high-speed internet free of charge.

Oliver said...

Man's attempt to control or harness the awesome power of evolution would no doubt be a wretched one. No!

What our societies demand, as manifest in the internet, is to bring everyone into the fold, brother to brother, as equals.

Live together, or die alone. Evolution smevolution

Anonymous said...

Huzzah!

Anonymous said...

The Internet may have made us equal but the government might be about to take that away. If you haven't heard about the issue of losing net-neutrality check it out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality
It'd be sad.

benjaminbammilner