Internet - A New Quantum Consciousness
53The Internet
Since it’s inception, many have stated that the internet will unite the world. Some argue that it has. While I think it has defiantly made progress towards that end, I see it as a double edged sword. Yes, I can now chat with people in other countries, but like many others, I find I spend so much time doing so I often forget to chat with the lady that lives next door.
While providing information at the speed of lightening, the internet is also robbing the youth of our nation of the valuable experience of have to dig and search and fight to find obscure information. Yes, yes, I know we sometimes feel the fifty links we had to hit to find that one lone quote or stat. is a mountain, but really it does not compare to wading through a hundred periodicals and books in the library.
So many schools and companies have gone to paperless modes of communication as much as possible to save on the cost of printing and paper, I wonder if computers and the internet will one day replace books altogether and I fear it may be so. To quote one of my fave. characters, Giles, from my fave. show Buffy the Vampire Slayer…
“Knowledge should be Smelly”, meaning books, while musty at times, are something tangible that can be held onto, a tactile source for senses other than vision. As he stated, the knowledge gained online is fleeting, there one second and gone the next. Books allow one to not only gain information but somehow feel the history contained within the pages.
A New Quantum Consciousness
A connection
affection
affirmation
congregation
touching the nation.
A binary revelation
of sinner and saint.
A new quantum consciousness
bred of unrest
woven with lust
for power
for connection
for control
for omnipotence.
Breathing in the night.
Stretching across the globe
sending electronic tentacles
into the minds of the world
teaching
reaching
rotting
consuming
all humanity drained
till only it remains.
Vix
a.k.a.
Rhonda Enrayne
©
Internet growth stats
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats2.htm
Tips for internet relationships
http://www.romanceopedia.com/indexInternet.html
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Great topic and I like the idea of capturing the essence of the Internet in poetry. The previous comment (Pete) comparing it to a credit card is spot on. While a fantastic tool in education and commerce it also brings lots of risks and dangers too. Good Hub!
Pete ~ I like your comparison...I agree w/ it too.
Rick ~ You are correct in there exists many dangers online I think.
Thank you both for reading.
I agree with that article that you have articulated so well. Whilst in Dublin Ireland I went to Trinity College founded by King Henry the Eight. There I saw very old books in the Library there. One such book or collections thereof was the Book Of Kells. It was soo beautifully designed and written, of course in Latin, and even beneath the glass encasement I could feel the History and sheer significance of such a work. They achieved this without printers or computers... That makes it more appreciative I quite agree.. Matt.
I wanted to do this comment in two parts. As for your poem.. Wow sending "electronic Tentacles". Great saying and wonderful allegory. I love the picture you chose, also the Alliteration of the title is classic. Alliteration but not.. If that makes any sense. The briefness of your poetic-eloquence always makes me smile Muse! Keep em coming and your score should be a lot higher. Your great friend and confident, Matt.
Thank you Matt you are very kind.
Wow, what a joy to behold such a book...I mean there are books and then there are BOOKS!
Interesting way of looking at things. I believe that advances in technology has brought us many wonderful things, but at the same time, has taken things as well. Being able to type a single word into a search engine and find millions of related posts takes away the feeling of success when you spend hours in a library digging into and discovering on your own the answers to your mystery. How much of our brain is going unused due to the ease of technology to solve our problems? Will we forget how to spell as even our phones will correct our typos before we notice them? Will the next generation even have problem solving skills? Could the fact that we have become used to everything being handed to us be one of the problems our country has now? Sorry to ask so many questions. Your hub is very thought provoking. Thanks.
Brethodge - Let me start by saying you have raised some excellent questions. I do not know the answers but will share my thoughts. Psychologically speaking, it is well known that we humans, as a group, tend to use less than 10 percent of our brains... the lack of usage allowed by the ease of access to information can only hurt.
As for forgetting how to spell, as a dyselexic I have never gotten over that, but, as a teacher I can tell you that is already happening.
As for the next generation having problems solving skills, some will and some won't. The ones who have to overcome challenges and solve problems of some type through struggle and effort will be able to as adults. The youth that get everything handed to them will not be able to solve problems for themselves.
I thank you very much for reading and hope you will visit again.
Poetvix, I have often wondered while in one of my philosophical states if the internet could not become a consciousness its self. If it did it would surly be very intelligent, for it has the information of the world in its brain. But would it be able to discern fantasy from reality? Would it be schizophrenic? What would its growth stages be like? Would it have emotions?
What would be this new life we have created and fed for decades?
John-- This must be the night for good questions.
I do not think the internet could, or for that matter can, tell fantasy from reality as in my mind it is but a child and as such is a blank slate or a sponge if you will. It absorbs all it can but knows not yet what to do w/ what it absorbs.
I think we, humanity, had best start to consider your last two questions as computers become more and more 'intelligent" and the internet grows for if it is its own consciousness, or ever becomes so, what will it think of us?
Consider for a moment, it is tied into virtually every computer, corporation, hospital, government, school, you get the idea. What if one day it "wakes up or comes to" and decides it knows better than we. It may grow teeth and bite us all.
Good information about internet. I learn much from you. You have great thought. This is original idea. I love it. Thanks for share with us.
Thank you Prasetio30 for your kind words and for visiting.... I always love to go to your pages as they are full of good information and beauty.
Great write. For global understanding, maybe a peaceful world is ahead. The internet may not be needed for anything else. But to be able to spread truth and find other truths It's been a blessing. There's porn, lies, corruption here on the net too, but the larger understanding of "who" our enemies are is more easily seen- and pointed out. Of course the opposition has to point in millions of ways for distraction. But- news travels fast now.
I have to agree news travels fast now Micky... but I wonder just how accurate the information is. Further, since we all know how fast info. travels on the net seems to me the perfect way to "plant' false info.
I don't know.. tech. is too new for me to trust very much... I see alot of danger in it... but thats just me.
Very thought provoking! I too like the phrase "sending electronic tentacles into the minds of the world" very descriptive. And some more excellent questions raised in the comments. I too lament the loss of sitting on a front porch and chatting with passers by, worry about society becoming so dependant on information technology that we'd be lost should it suddenly not be available, and am concerned about the accuracy of the information being made available to all.
I'm sorry, I'm yammering on and on. So much to think about!
Thank you for reading Allan.
I wonder at times if the internet, like most new technolgies, is something we did because we could without stopping to consider if we should. At what cost does it come? Instant information in exchange for social fellowship in real time? Instant gratification in exchange for humanities perseverance skills? Ease of access in exchange for dilligence and the ability to see a task through to its conclusion?
It seems to me we, humanity, are becoming more and more dependent on tehcnologies and as we do so we loose more and more of our own faculties.
Don't get me wrong. I love the net and am most likely more hooked on it more than most. Maybe that is the essessence of a great part of the danger I fear is in the net... is it a cyber drug? Is it killing off parts of our brains like electronic cocain? I don't know... but I wonder.
You may be right poetvix, humanity has a habit of doing things because we can, then spending decades running around cleaning up the mess we made when something goes awry.
The whole thing brings to mind a Sci-Fi character from the TV series Star Trek (TNG & Voyager) called The Borg. Are you familiar with them?
I can see us implanting chips in our skulls to give us cellphone and internet access without having to pack around hardware. Not this week maybe, but evenually.
That could be the first step toward becoming a society so interconnected that they loose all sense of individuality.
OK, that was wierd. Must be time for supper. My brain does odd things when I'm hungry!
I am so very familiar with the Borg, Allen. So much so that I have actually attended a Star Trek convention... nerdy in the exteme I know, but it's true. I love the series... most of them save the next gen.
Interesting you mention a chip as I recently read an article online about a dr. that actually injected a chip into his body to see if he could use it to upload a virus when walking past other "chipped" items. In the article he stated that he could. I have no idea as to the validity of his claims but it is rather scary if it is true.
Hmmm... I'm no mirco-electronics expert, but I seriously doubt the validity of that claim. Not from one "injectable" chip. He'd need to implant a micro-processor and a transmitter along with an antenna.
But, then I HAVE read rumors about the military having cockroach sized robots that are used to spy on enemies. But that too is an unsubstatiated rumor. So far.
Sometimes these thoughts make me want to go back to the days of electricity being the be all end all of new technologies!
For a time (years ago) I considered becoming a survivalist; moving to Montana, building a home frome trees on the land and surviving with kerosene lanterns and a wood burning cook stove. I could get used to that.
Maybe.
Than again... (shrug)
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Pete Maida Level 1 Commenter 21 months ago
The Internet is a wealth of information, but for the most part, it is unchecked information. Not only os the information questionable, but the author may not even be known.
Unless the reader has some knowledge of the subject that he or she is reading they will has no idea of the value of the information.
The Internet should be treated like a credit card. It should be used wisely and not for everything.