The Internet - drowning in its own waste?

[Occhidiangela]

First:

Pete, thanks for starting this thread. The folks who contributed to it added to my precious "good as grilled sausage" links collection by no less than 5. :D

Second

The internet reminds me of a weapon: useful in the right hands, dangerous in the wrong hands, best used after a basic course of instruction in safety and operation.

Third:

The Information Superhighway is an apt methaphor, but not for the reasons that it was originally given. Unlike a highway in the United States or in Europe, or Japan, the pavement of the Internet is driven on like the roads here in Qatar: by motorists who by and large are unlicensed, and groping their way forward with the meagerest of an idea where they are headed to, no less how to get there safely. Thankfully, many catch on, some are guided by Allah, and others get where they are going simply by following the herd. A few crash and burn, Darwin rest their souls.

If you have driven on many different road systems, and been a licensed driver, you will find adapting to a new driving environment less stressful than would an unlicensed greenhorn will. What the endless September, savvy marketing, market forces, and restraint by federal regulators did was construct a superhighway that allowed anyone who could buy a car to drive up the on ramp and travel on the public road. No license needed, no training course, learning by total immersion. Like real life, folks arrived with variable tool kits containing judgement, speed of adaptation, and inner desire to become expert. The result si that we have an Indy 500 race being driven with Michael Schumacher and Joanne-the-16-year-old-who-just-got-a-car on the same track.

The road foundation was built by some savvy engineers, just as a highway is, and a lot of hard work, just like any road. Those who drive on it, in the main, barely appreciate it. Those who do, those who enjoy the journey, and those who use it as more than a simple means to an end surely get the most out of travelling on the Information Highway. The rest are just traffic, or traffic hazards, depending on their relative skill at navigation and obstruction avoidance. It's a people thing, as any number of posts in this thread have suggested. :D

Fixing what is wrong with the Internet is similar to fixing what is wrong with driving, with the added difficulty of a lack of licensing, standarization, and vision limitations that driving, in most places, has built in structurally. Fixing such chaos . . . hard. In the meantime, we develop coping skills, survival skills, and tactical methods to make our own experience the most rewarding, the least painful, or both as the situation demands.

That said, driving without any rules, while dangerous, can be FUN FUN FUN! I have driven in, last I checked-- Japan, Italy, Germany, Spain, Qatar, Taiwan(illegally) America, Mexico, England, Malta, Greece, Croatia?Yugoslavia, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Belgium, France, Scotland, Austria, Switzerland. Might have left some out. Most of their road and driving systems are well structured and similar, but each has its own rules of engagement. The places where there are fewer or no rules are, due to the 'blood sport' character of the driving, a thrill a minute! I love it! But, like porn sites on the internet, such tastes are not for everyone.

What do we have available to enhance our driving experience? Choice, our wits, and the occasional hail-fellow-traveller-well-met. We also have a legacy to pass on to the next generation. Teaching my kids about the internet is a lot like teaching them to drive, with the chance that they will download me a virus thrown in! *boooo*

The Information Superhighway: It's here, it's imperfect, and with a little work, nothing worthwhile in life is generally absent that, it can be a nice addition to one's life.

Spam email is like traffic noise, or the neighbor's lawn mower at 6:00 AM on a Sunday morning, and my least favorite feature. My favorite feature of the internet is the personal interaction part, the exposure to new ideas and things I never knew, and the ease of access of some kinds of information. I find that the best part of life is the part where you are dealing, in reasonable harmony, with other people. Likewise, in life and on the Internet, the bothersome parts come when dealing with people who are, for want of a better term, lost, loud, and lame. A reflection of real life, is the internet, though at times resembling a bunyon on the heel of society.

It's a people thing. Funny, much of life is a people thing. Should the internet be any different?

"Men mean more than guns in the rating of a ship" quoth John Paul Jones. To paraphrase: who you run into on the internet can mean more than all the RAM, clock speed, cache, and Gigabytes in the the wildest imagination of a crazed FPS hound.

The Lounge is a people place. The people who frequent this nice little bar and coffee shop on a back road, well off the Information Highway, overlooking a small lake where ducks swim, foxes scurry about in the under brush, and deer graze on sweet sweet grass (Hey, who put up the corn feeder?) tend to be the sort worth meeting, talking to, learning from, and laughing with.

*Tips Chapeau to all Lurkers*

Could it be that the Internet, like life, is what we make of it? I think so. :)

I am buying. I'll have a Guinness. What are the rest of you drinking?

Occhi