Farren

I am thoroughly hermitized - in part because between work and hobby code I have little time to indulge in social niceties in the real world - in equal part because of IIDB.

Someone from physical reality and a long way back in personal history just popped in and I found myself referring constantly to web discussions from right here.

I sometmes feel a little self conscious doing this but tonight the words spilled from my lips as if I was talking about an event that happened in the bar up the road or at a gathering of some sort.

Back when I was working at an Internet Cafe I saw netheads as some kind of sad reminder of the "dangers" of the net, even though I was so thoroughly enamoured of the technology that enabled their discourse.

I think this had a lot to do with the fact that I was attempting to reconcile hippy philosophies with a childhood adoration of computers and thier seemingly infinite potential.

Now I realise that the net is the magnificent enabler. There's no way that i would be able to converse with such a diverse and extraordinary group of indiviuals other than the net.

We could dispose of the oil industry and a good part of the bad guys of modern consumerism and the kinds of industries that f*** up Gaia (in the Margulis/Lovelockian sense ) and still produce the technology that allows us to share positive memes across such vast spaces, from such differing contexts.

Perhaps its an idea shaped more by desire than reason, but I can't help thinking that the Internet is like the embryonic nervous system of a living plant, and the vivid discourse on IIDB the constructive thoughts of a global consciousness.

dimpledop

The internet has opened up so many doors for me. Although the public library was my first love, and I still love it, the internet has enabled me to learn about so many things at the drop of a hat. It's all right there at my fingertips; I don't even have to step out the door.

As an obvious example, take the subject of atheism. I just googled the word and, wow, was I ever surprised to find so many different websites on the topic. I honestly had no idea that there are so many people who shared my basic outlook on life.

If used properly (that is to say, it's not allowed to negatively affect other aspects of a person's life), the internet really is "the magnificent enabler". People have never had a more efficient or inexpensive means to share ideas. Exchange of ideas is essential if humanity is to have any chance of figuring out how to stay alive for another two millennia. (That is, if we don't kill eachother off for sharing ideas some of us didn't like. But let's stay positive. )