The Global Mindset

For anyone reading this blog that's not part of the Multimedia class, take a look at this video, Kevin Kelly - The Next 5000 Days of the Internet, before going too far in. The meat of this post has to do with the topics Kelly brings up.

I was intrigued by what Kelly said in this clip. I had never taken the time to really think about how old (or young) the internet is, and it certainly didn't occur to me the huge amount of change that's happened in such a short amount of time. The first thing that he said that really struck me, outside of the brevity and reach of this relatively new invention, was his comment on our evolving codependency. I would go so far as to say that we've already reached a point of no return. Coming in right under 30 year of age, I've grown up with the internet for a little under half of my life. I know that I've been irreversibly changed by this technology. I use it every day. I don't use a phone book anymore, they're too slow. Dictionaries are antiques in my eyes. My goal is to ultimately "plug in" through a new career path. But I can go without it for a few days when the need arises. I see the addiction in me, however. I use it more and more. Almost all of my communication and outside contact happens through this window (touched on that one last week). And I see it even stronger in my younger siblings. They cannot live without it. Everything they have is plugged in. A cell connection is crucial for their existence. The web is their air.

Moving on, Kelly mentioned the Cloudbook concept. This isn't a far stretch. The technology already exists. There are hundreds of online disk drive companies who sell monthly subscriptions to virtually unlimited storage space on the web. There are companies, such as http://g.ho.st/ that already offer fully-integrated internet-based operating systems. All you need is a system that can access the web and you have your own personal desktop where ever you go. Don't like the idea of keeping everything online? Maintain a home computer and use a service like https://www.gotomypc.com/, which grants you access to your home PC from any computer anywhere in the world at the click of a button. Still don't like it? Wait a few years. As technology goes, size drops by half and power/storage doubles every two years. That means that in a very short time we'll have the ability to carry around pocket-sized personal computers. How will this work? Won't the screens be too small? The keyboards impossible to use? Don't worry. The screen technology already exists. Think projection TV. Keyboard? No problem. Use a laser-read projected keyboard, like the one here: Youtube - Laser Keyboard. You can buy it from these guys:http://www.virtual-laser-keyboard.com/. Ultimately, though, the trending of easier portability and greater online storage or link-up ability will create a more mobile and plugged-in community.

Kelly mentions a possible downfall of this new system: the Web will own everything. Once the storage is moved online, how can you determine ownership? You end up with issues of public domain, copyright infringement, etc. I would like to add a different spin on this: Positive Marxism. If everything is thrown into a collective pot from which everyone can benefit, one possible outcome is greater equality and the collapse of the traditional local currency-based economies. This could lead to a freer sharing or ideas and technologies and a reversion of society to a fair-trade barter-like system.

Finally, at then end of his lecture, Kelly begins to analogize: he likens the growing web to a organism, compiled of millions of parts, each containing millions of cells, with the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Now, each of these parts is a community, and in each of these, we are the cells. The final thought that he leaves us with is existentialist: We are One. Tied together by this unifying factor, the earth, we are one. The internet is our connection to all the other segments, highlighting once and for all that humanity is not really a segmented entity. Our evolution as species has brought us to this point, created this technology and spawned this global mind, a collection of all our greatest accomplishments and failures, the racial memory of our entire species. As we continue to plug in to this artificial mind, our computing creates the synapses, with each of us a neuron, passing and spreading information from one part to another. With the earth as our body, and the web as our mind, humanity is reaching for that ultimate goal, its tenuous grasp so close. And as the fingers finally wrap around the prize, let it be known that We Are One.