Sadim, and Konrad, interesting article...The internet and communicatons.
Will PCs and Net build better people?
They can be used for material and spiritual purposes, for good and evil.
Ever since the Industrial Revolution, a vocal assortment of poets, philosophers and scholars has argued that the cold steel of technology is inherently in conflict with the things that make us spiritual and, well, human.
Not so, say the technologists. Science and technological progress have raised living standards, giving ordinary people the time to pursue artistic, spiritual and other higher aims.
Personal computers and the Internet play a big role in this debate today.
PCs are one of society's most pervasive technological fixtures. And the Internet, in connecting millions of personal computers worldwide, is the biggest machine ever built.
Do personal computers and the Internet separate us from, or bring us closer to, our humanity?
The short answer is, it depends.
Computers are tools, and like the printing press and adding machine that preceded them, they can be used for material purposes and spiritual endeavors, for the sacred and the profane, for good and evil.
The driving force behind the Internet now is the prospect of lots of companies making lots of money through online shopping, advertising, subscriptions, banking and investing.
Yet most of the content on the Net is still free, and much will likely remain free, since the free and open exchange of information is the chief reason for the Net's popularity.
This freedom has brought with it the exchange of all kinds of content, including pornography. Even the most libertarian visitor to the Internet would be hard-pressed to justify the child pornography and sexual harassment that can be found there, just as it can be found in other areas of society.
Other types of crime, from bank fraud to espionage, are also perpetrated with the aid of computers and the Internet.
Yet much good emanates from cyberspace, where random acts of kindness are an everyday phenomenon.
In one CompuServe forum, Martha Ashley mentioned that she missed the honey from her former state of Arizona. Arizonan Dawn Wassler promptly mailed her a jar. In another forum, Kathryn Willig revealed she was undergoing treatment for colon cancer. She promptly received cards and flowers in the mail from her fellow cybernauts.
For years, computers have also been used for the study of great religious texts, including the Bible. Computer search techniques make finding specific passages a snap, and hypertext tools make it easy to jump from one passage to a related one, even if you hadn't previously realized the connection.
More recently, multimedia CD-ROMs have introduced even more tools. Charlton Heston's Voyage Through the Bible (Jones Digital Sentry, 303-792-3111) is a CD-ROM that includes 15 editions of the New Testament accompanied by videos, artwork, music, 3D animation and a biblical dictionary.
There are numerous online areas devoted to religion as well. On the Internet, Jewishnet (http://www.jewishnet.net/) offers a large amount of information on Judaism, Hebrew and Israel. The Islamic Server (http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/) explores in detail the principles and practices of Islam.
Also available over the Internet are individual Usenet discussion groups devoted to Hinduism (soc.
religion.hindu), Buddhism (talk.
religion.buddhism), Quakerism (soc.religion.quaker), Unitarian-Universalism (soc.religion.unitarian-univ), atheism (alt.atheism), shamanism (soc.religion.shamanism), and New Age thought (talk.religion.newage).
The best of these discussion groups blossom into full-fledged online communities. Protected by distance, people who've never met in the flesh discuss the most intimate details of love, sex, betrayal, illness, addiction, work, friendship and child-rearing. Warm and fuzzy feelings abound as people share their lives with like-minded souls.
Excessive reliance on online communication, however, can create physical isolation. The Net has given rise to electronic shut-ins, often young people who spend hours on end roaming from one newsgroup, Web site, mailing list and chat channel to another.
If the Internet continues to increase in popularity, and as high-quality interactive audio and video become feasible in the future, will a whole generation of people be swallowed by the cybervoid?
These prospects, even if remote, are chilling. As Dr. Joyce Brothers told me once in a phone interview, computers don't replace face-to-face contact, the touch of a hand. When machines take over, we lose our humanity.
Still, the Internet above all else is people around the world linking with one another -- rich, poor, black, white, yellow, red, believer, nonbeliever, conservative, liberal. Even though we sometimes flame in disagreement and anger, communicating across political and racial borders can help us see and share our common humanity.
Balance is key. Computers and the Net can open up bright new vistas into ourselves. But man does not live by silicon alone.
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Regards, Michael |
