Continued from page 1
If you are interested in information from varied areas E.g.: philosophy and astrophysics, you no longer need to spend time traveling from one library to another, or having to tote your bags from
third floor to fifth. In space of fifteen minutes one can read on guitar, skateboarding, African dancing, and politics of Marx. If you do go to university, libraries are now on-line with most of texts available to download. No more late fees for not returning a book because your car skidded and hit a tree trying to bring it back it in a blizzard!
We still need to talk with ones 'in know', perceived wise people of our now global community. The chiefs and shamans of old have now dwindled in rank but there are more people than ever before that specialize in particular fields of knowledge. With email, MSN Messenger, and Skype types of on-line communication we can now get in touch with people instantly. Web-cams mean you can have a conversation with a fellow brain surgeon from other side of world face-to-face, just before that operation where right information might make or break outcome. You can communicate with groups of people that otherwise you may have never come into physical contact with. In medieval times it was rare to ever leave local village and meet people who lived only ten miles away. Now there are chat rooms and forums where people who are interested in same things as you can get together and have informative discussions on relevant issues and topics. Political and national boundaries dissolve under need and want to share knowledge with those of like mind.
What does all this truly mean for humanity? It could mean we save time, meaning more time to spend doing things in life which are really important to us like being with loved ones and following dreams and aspirations. It could mean ability to solve problems in areas that minutes before you could have been steeped in ignorance. Possibly it spells beginning for a whole society to evolve into a more informed species whose knowledge is widespread and varied. Whatever outcome from coming of this great medium, one fact remains: People are more prone to find answers to their quests when ultimate source of our collective understanding is close at hand and easily accessible.
Jesse S. Somer M6.Net http://www.m6.net Jesse S. Somer can see a few of the infinite possibilities that lie in the unfolding of the Internet as the ultimate source of sharing knowledge and ideas. Could the result be wisdom where humanity finally sees the infinite possibilities lying within themselves?
