Thursday, April 17, 2008

The Internet Will Revolutionize the World

The Internet, is going to completely revolutionize society, and it has already begun.

Think of how much the Internet has already changed our lives. When we have questions, they can now be answered with a modest amount of research that requires little more than a few key strokes. In the past, if you or someone you knew had a question that was out of the field of expertise of people around you, it would require a trip to the library, sifting through hundreds of pages of books looking for an answer. Now most questions can be answered in a matter of minutes, and deeper questions can be answered in a few hours.

Having the Internet in your home is the equivalent of owning your own personal multi billion dollar library. The bulk of all human knowledge has already been uploaded onto the Internet, and soon all human knowledge will be published directly onto the Internet.

Internet speeds are becoming exponentially faster, fiber optics have been developed that can transfer 40Gb's/sec on a single fiber. The ability to transfer such large amounts of data will certainly bring down the cost of individual household bandwidth. A cheaper and faster Internet is upon us, but what does this mean for the world?

The rise of the Internet means the end of ignorance. Sure the Internet has a lot of unreliable resources on it, but it also has the largest collection of reliable resources on it, much larger than any library in known existence. The only knowledge one needs in order to end their ignorance with the Internet, is the ability to do good research. This means checking the credentials of the people whose documents you are using as a source, incorporating multiple credible sources in order to back up an idea, and the ability to use search engines properly. With this basic knowledge, those with Internet access can free themselves of any ignorance they would like.

If a person has a question, it can be answered quickly, and reliably with the Internet.

We have more information at our fingertips than anybody in the past ever dreamed of. Just one generation ago, this sort of access to information was hardly even dreamed of, and now it is a reality.

Information will allow humans to make intelligent decisions in any situation that is desired.

The Internet provides a means for racists, homophobes, and the religious to observe other peoples idea's on the world in a non-threatening manner. Ignorant people can simply read what others have to say without feeling immediately defensive. The mere fact that ignorant people can read other opinions without feeling threatened will help open up their minds. I am absolutely convinced that humans are rational by nature, and the only reason we act irrationally is because we are separated from knowledge.

Cheers for the end of ignorance

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Who and What are We?

I was listening to an old clip of Richard Alpert talking about self, and what it is that we are as individuals. He makes the point that every individual shares the most central parts of themselves with everybody else. We all share awareness, this is the most important and profound part of our existence. All of the things that we associate ourselves with, the labels like; student, brother, son, boyfriend, and all other sort of labels. These labels are more like clothes that we wear on top of our awareness rather than what we are. Many of us associate our "self" with some sort of label, and this inherently makes us feel as though each individual is a completely separate person. We look for the differences in people in comparison to ourselves. What we should realize, is that we all share the most important part of our existence with every living human. We all share awareness, and not only that, but a similar sort of awareness, a human awareness. Although we try to identify each other by our differences, we need to come to the understanding that at the fundamental level, we are all the same. We all share the same type of awareness.

The part of you that feels, is the same in each individual on this planet. Although you may feel different things, it is the ability to "feel" that we share with each other. We must recognize this if we are to ever achieve world peace and prosperity.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Is This Article Self Aware?

By Paige Thompson


Yes.[1]


References:

[1]Thompson, Paige. "Is this article self aware?." PDH Complex 7(2008):