Tuesday, October 27, 1998

Hello, From Idaho!
by Richard Dressner (TMF Twitty)

What fun it is to talk to people that are new to online communication. Like people brought together by a significant event, they are happy to be there, and ecstatic for the opportunity to meet and communicate with new friends. Words like "Hello from Idaho!" and "Am I really here?" are gently snickered at by the jaded, seasoned ones... but the magic isn't lost on any of us.

Isolationism has been decried as stifling of human progress and endeavors, wreaking havoc on world trade and prosperity. A closed society may become so incestuous that it actually regresses. The problem is doubled, because while the closed societies are regressing, the open societies are progressing. This disparity of ability and achievement has been the root cause of much suffering and war.

The online societies don't depend on physical proximity, and are open by definition; they are legion, numbering in the millions of members. Traditional lines of demarcation are blurring and dissolving. It no longer matters if you reside in Idaho, or in Tripoli... we can communicate just as well. An end to war? Hardly, but it sure cuts down on the "my country right or wrong" knee-jerk salutes to the flag. When an elite few can't manage the information or your access to it, a Hearst newspaper style Spanish-American war becomes much more difficult to start.

The sum total of human knowledge, as well as its component parts, will soon be available to all in a usable form. I say usable, because anyone searching the 'Net for specific information knows what a tedious process that can be. But having that knowledge available, reveals truth. The chorus of cacophony resolves to a harmony of thought, and the bigger the chorus, the purer the thought.

Sure, there is a lot of idiocy and deception out there. But most of us are honest, reasonably intelligent people. The more of us there are, the less the "noise" is heard. That's why I'm so excited about the near future. The more people who have access, the greater the synergy. So raise my taxes a few mils for school computers, it's money well spent. Put Internet access in shelters and centers for the disadvantaged. Give people the means to rise above their limitations, and we all rise with them.

I believe that humans have a collective destiny, and we are much closer now to having the means to fulfill that destiny. We can follow the light as a cohesive whole, should we choose to do so. Power to the people? Yeah, dig it!

[Hey Fools, why not pen a Fribble, yourself? We welcome submissions from readers. Just click here and read the "What's a Fribble?" item, pen a short masterpiece, and send it off to TMF [email protected].]

Have a similar tale?
Talk about it in the Fribble Message Folder!