I promise to try and make it through this entire post without referencing former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, which is pretty hard for me, honestly.
I love and crave good conversation with smart people. It makes me happy. In fact, it might be one of my favorite things in the world. Luckily I have friends who gladly oblige me in this desire and can converse on any number of subjects. Luckily, over the last few days I have had a few of these treasured conversations. Chase and Erik proved that they could provide some smarts in a conversation, providing hope for the future (and if you know Chase, you were as surprised as I was! Ha.) and then an e-mail from two smart people , Mike and Colleen, (with spectacular blogs of their own!) sparked a conversation about inventions.
A little back story on my thoughts on inventions. Think about what inventions have had the most impact on our lives in the last ten years. Got them? Oh, you need more time? Okay. I'll wait. Still not much? Well, that is probably because we don't truly invent much anymore. We refine and perfect and add, but rarely do we come up with something brand new. There really is no one to fault for this. The good money is in consumer entertainment. That is where our technology and new ideas are being funneled to right now, which is fine, but it isn't revolutionizing anything. We are just making life more entertaining, which is good in a lot of respects, but it isn't advancing us as a race much.
The "inventions" that we have seen in recent years have been very focused on consumer demand. There is an exception to that though, an exception that might actually change the world we live in. That's right. Al Gore's Internet.
Mike was telling me about how he was thinking the other day about how the Internet will likely be remembered as one of the most important inventions in history. I completely agreed. While I don't think it can have nearly the impact that the Printing Press had in the 15th century, I do think the Internet will and already has to some extent change the way we do almost everything. Education, business, communication, travel and shopping have already been completely changed by the Internet and will likely keep changing and improving the speed, effectiveness and means of how we go about living.
However, I'm not sure we have completely tapped the expanse of the Internets potential, particularly in business, education and government. In fact, much of the way we use the Internet on a regular basis hasn't changed in years. Right now the Internet is stagnate. We aren't using it that differently then we have been for the last 7 years.
Honestly, I blame the baby-boomer generation. Right now, they are in command of the world, so to speak. They are our business and government leaders and for the lack of a better phrase, they are slowing us down. While most are actually very competent users of the Internet, the average baby-boomer does not use it the way, say I do, or you do. Mostly, they see it as a way to forward funny e-mails or schedule a meeting (that will take place in person, not online) or order that book off of Amazon.
They don't know that maybe the best way to educate children might not be the way they were educated or even the way I was educated. We were educated and tested on how well we could memorize and how well we could apply that knowledge. Now, we don't need to know what the information is, we just need to know the best and fastest way to find it and then discern if that information is truth or not and THEN apply that information to what we need. We need to embrace the 'apply', because we can find literally any information out there that we need. Everything is available. You just need to know how to find it and use it.
However, this idea hasn't been fully embraced yet, and likely won't be until a decade or so down the road. That day will come, and when it does you can search for this blog and remember that 10 years ago I knew it was coming, and the Internet will be able to show you that I was right.
Assuming that no one mistakes the Internet for a big truck and dumps a bunch of crap on to it.
You knew I wouldn't be able to last an entire post!
={+}=
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I want credit for my plagiarized thoughts :) It's true though, my senior year I had "open internet" tests because I wasn't expected to memorize anymore. Nice.
I think the baby boomers are just too slow. We're rapid-paced, kinda ADD, multi-taskers who can get all our work done AND check facebook while we do it. Do away with BS-ing with co-workers and we'd only have to work 25 hours a week to get the same amount done.
But in the baby boomer coporate life we get to sit through meaningless meetings and work on one monotonous task (while we facebook)at a time.
I can't wait till we rule.
Only if you give me credit for mine in YOUR blogs. Ha.
Wait. I thought I did. Actually, it is likely just because we agreed completely on this and other things.
It's a gray area...just like inventions and who and when they were invented....
well... internet itself. thats the thing. people want to say "the internet."
but really, it just comes down to networking in general. there's not spectacular about the network(s) itself (atleast nothing more spectacular then the space shuttle, folding chairs or microwaveable burritos and the factories they come from). its what people do with them. the internet experience has, in my opinion, become a giant magnifying glass of society.
nothing looks good that close up or that far away. the internet allows for simultaneously aggregating and scrutinizing.
wtf am i even saying. get back to work fingle!
1. I'm glad you called me 'smart,' esp. since I said Justin Timberlake was one of the greatest 'inventions.'
2. FACEBOOK - wasn't around 7 years ago. See, we are progressing...
http://xkcd.com/c137.html
unrelated to this post but worth a look.
Post a Comment