The Internet is Really Cool

I love the internet. It's where I work, play, learn, create and communicate. It has changed everything.

I was first introduced to the concept of the internet about a year before it really started to gain broad appeal. I remember getting online on my dad's computer and cruising the various gopher sites I could easily access

It was all text only of course, there was no Netscape yet and Internet Explorer v1 was still at least two years away. Even so, it was my first taste and the world hasn't been the same for me since.

On the plus side, things were wide open and "spam" was still a luncheon meat to nearly everyone. Unfortunately, though, so few other people had internet access so it was hard to share your discoveries with other people.

We've come a long way since then. The internet has given us ways to communicate that we could not have dreamt of back in the early 90's. We live significant portions of our lives online now and our identities are represented both online and in the real world.

There are fascinating questions that arise when we as a society make such a significant leap in so short a time. There is also, perhaps, a need for a certain amount of caution when we put ourselves online.

I have heard it said that what holds us in check as a society is that our ability to do harm to one another or to ourselves is largely outweighed by our inhibitions against doing so. In essence, we are saved from our worst impulses by our inability to easily follow through on them.

With the coming of the Information Age we have been granted extraordinary abilities with which we have not yet truly come to grips. In some ways it's like we're fulfilling the childhood dream of having super powers.

And, like all super heroes, we must remember to use our powers for good - not because evil is any more attractive, it's just so very much easier.