Monday, July 18, 2011

Another Test For the Internet

If the internet is as revolutionary a technology as advertised, I have a simple question: what scientific or other important break-through for the benefit of human kind has developed as a direct result of the internet? I know the internet hasn't been around all that long, but in theory, if this thing is as important as advertised, it ought to yield some impressive results. As far as I can tell, the three most impressive developments are:

1. Online shopping, ie amazon, itunes, netflix, pornography. These more or less made it easier to buy or rent basic consumer items. Not a huge achievement in terms of human development.
2. Email. Really revolutionized how we communicate and transmit information. Made it a lot quicker. Basically, made us greater slaves to work.
3. Hastened the decline of the news business. We get all our news via the internet now. And sooner and less professional. Ups and downs to this one, but it has changed.

Compare this with other developments in the 20th century - putting a man on the moon - inspiring science, inventing the airplane and automobile - which has redefined the way the developed world lives and travels, the nuclear bomb - ending a horrific war, but also threatening all life on the planet, the improvement of basic pharmaceuticals - basic stuff just like penicillin and heart disease medicine making people live a lot longer, birth control - revolutionizing male and female relationships.

I'm curious what the internet is going to change in human history...as of yet, most of the developments are just in the field of data organization and searching and this nebulus thing called social networking.

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