Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.91.960921081430.21494A-100000@fox.ksu.ksu.edu> Date: Sat, 21 Sep 1996 09:03:05 -0500 From: kerry miller <mailto:astingsh@KSU.EDU> Subject: Re: Internet to save the world To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Gary:> ... my ocean-polluting and
> mercilessly time-sucking computer appears finally to be good for one thing
> that I'm not ashamed of, i.e., letting like-minded souls find each other so
> that efforts and thoughts may proceed towards solutions. Of course, it
> might have been better if problems that were caused by our technological
> and earth-plundering societies had never occurred, so that we didn't need
> to network together to solve the problems, but I guess c'est la vie...
>
Here's a thought experiment: if this siliconized epitome of high technology can reveal its better side, then any other tech might also have its _appropriate_ use. Now, looking back over the battlefield of Nukes, and PCBs and SSTs and 8-lane highways and 5-pound newspapers and TCPs and so on, one has to ask: On what basis did we get so polarized that we had to be 'for' or 'against' such innovations, as if there could not possibly be any mitigating aspects? Obviously the fault lies not in the machinery, but in ourselves. Their development was _rushed_, in the specific sense that noone waited for consequences to become evident before 'progressing' to a yet higher, more intricate, more interfering _less understood_ achievement.> >
> > But I think these issues will be soon concerning the developed
> > countries as well... And I hope that the dominant attitude of
> > using Internet just as a mean to exchange resource information or
> > job opportunities will soon change to some kind of interactive
> > interchange between us, promoting this "quantic leap" we and our
> > children need so much!
>
> *** I think this quantic leap is happening as we speak. And it's happening
> on more levels than just the Internet. But the Internet may really be key,
> because it has the potential of being the communications glue that holds it
> all together, at the grass roots level, i.e., the people.
Might it therfore be possible to make our haste in this particular revolution somewhat more slowly and deliberately? To take some of this oh-so-preciously-overvalued time-stuff and spend it on understanding and thoughtfulness, even as one _had_ to do in the days of pen and ink (even as then one regretted not walking a mile to visit face to face...), to contemplate before 'communicating'? If we are so sure that global cooperation is possible, then maybe the place to start is right here at the quantum leap. If the net is really as wonderful as our imaginations persuade us it is, we should try to _develop_ its potential according to the many lessons we have learned about how not to 'develop' other wondrous parts of our world. It seems clear to me that thinking globally means acting - yea, even talking - slowly. It means (not in reference to this particular thread, and certainly not in reference to Joachim's decade-long campaign!) Quit Rushing the Job!
kerry mailto:astingsh@ksu.edu