Are the internets helping?

[bntii]

So in a flash I can jump on line consult 'Dr. Google' and find out why I can't walk (or think) straight. Next stop and I find out that there is no further need to worry about being caught in a NE blow in "The Stream' and discover that I will have far less trouble finding ice for my drinks. Another few clicks and I find a very nice graph about progressives and manatees. Next stop over and I can ask my boat buddies if hoisting the wife to the yards will help with stability during storms at sea. All the while I am conversing with like minded (and other), folk far from my ken.

Is all this a good thing?

Are we all becoming better informed and more social or ?

Am I participating in civilization creeping forward towards the great unknown or is all this chatter really more like mud on the wheels?

There is a long standing tension over how information forms policy in our societies. The findings of science in particular can be viewed as being annoyingly prescriptive.
Now that we can all be so instantly 'informed'; a brave new world?

[gonzo]

It depends, mud on a 4X4's wheels is cool.

[michael pierzga]

Knowledge is spread faster. Concerning weather...with sat com and sites like passage weather I can accelerate oceanic transits and do so safely. Remember Morse code ?, single sideband ? .... remember the BBC shipping forecast ? , tape recorder in hand, monitoring radio France on the shortwave , struggling to understand the , language, the path and velocity of the tropical depression. I remember...I remember WWV WOM... and talking to god from the deck of a sailing yacht as we got hammered offshore in a hurricane who failed to track normally. with the Internet and sat com I can constantly monitor conditions from a varity of sources, as the forecast matures , regardless of language , regardless of time zone, regardless of radio propagation. Knowledge is what its all about.... The internet is knowledge

Three cheers for the new...three cheers for technical information at your fingertip.

[anthony goodson]

I just googled the number of the local leisure centre and now the wife has taken the grandchildren out for a couple of hours ,3 cheers for that "Google makes savants of us all"

[gonzo]

We used to have to go fishing to stay away from the wife. Now, with the help of the internet, you can make the wife leave the house. That's what I call progress.

[cthippo]

Originally Posted by bntii

Is all this a good thing?

Yes.

Originally Posted by bntii

Am I participating in civilization creeping forward towards the great unknown

Also Yes.

But you're still missing the point (Not suitable for work):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE_X4QqTsD0

[PAR]

A similar out cry was heard when cable TV hit the market and people would become befuddled with all the choices. This sort of thing has happened repeatedly in human history. The telegraph revolutionized communications, but hell fire the telephone kicked the telegraph's butt and nearly instantaneous communication had to be the best it could get right? Nope, not even close, as I'm looking back with a fondness of the days when kids actively knew what a rotary phone was, let alone how it operated.

If you have to ask these questions then you're done, spent, start looking for a peaceful burial plot under a big shade tree or maybe a reserved place on the mantel for your ashes. Build you last boat and christen it "Final Anchorage" with instructions to be buried at sea in it.

At the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries, the end of the world's "empires" was on the table, but the old farts (like those that ask these questions) insisted it wasn't true and with fingernails dragging off their wills, soon discovered they were wrong and what would the world come to, without their omnipresent, overbearing presence to guide and rule us all. Sure enough before two decades had passed, the British, the Russian, the Ottoman, the German, the you name it empire was done, spent, stick a fork in it, time to go.

We advance faster then we can cope with for the most part, which is likely why the best and brightest are young and the controls are exercised by the old and cantankerous.

"Rock and Roll will be the death to us all", should be the phrase you whisper to yourself, the next time a hip hop blasting radio from the car next to you at the light occurs. They'll be the generation that spoon feeds you apple sauce, while they await your finial will and testament reading, so try to be kind.

[bntii]

Originally Posted by PAR

If you have to ask these questions then you're done, spent, start looking for a peaceful burial plot under a big shade tree or maybe a reserved place on the mantel for your ashes. Build you last boat and christen it "Final Anchorage" with instructions to be buried at sea in it.

I was hoping that wasn't it but alas.......

Still trying to figure out why all these folks are "tweeting"

[Dirteater]

It is a good thing. Not that long ago we had no idea what was really happening on the other side of the world or city for that matter. I like to think it makes us more humane on a global level. that said... my original thought after reading this forum was hey!
I'm not alone there are other geezers out there. (or atleast thats what they called me on my 50th!) *L*

[cthippo]

Originally Posted by Dirteater

It is a good thing. Not that long ago we had no idea what was really happening on the other side of the world or city for that matter. I like to think it makes us more humane on a global level. that said... my original thought after reading this forum was hey!
I'm not alone there are other geezers out there. (or atleast thats what they called me on my 50th!) *L*

It's a lot harder to hate a group when you know some of the individuals who make up that group. On forums like this we have people from all over the world who we interact with. The next time someone tells you "all XXX hate us and we should kill them first" you're likely to think of someone you know from these or other forums and remember that "they" don't all do anything.

[Dirteater]

Well said ct.
We are flooded daily with new technoligies/info and gadgets. but its comments such as yours that keep us hopeful. ie: I think when the www. first arrived it had more of a disturbing side, but I believe the "communities" have made good strides over the years in making the web more responsible and useful. sure we have a ways to go. but I'm hopeful

[cthippo]

I dunno, when the internet was young only geeks were using it and it was pretty innocent. It wasn't until the masses started signing on that things got bad. The web has just as many "bad neighborhoods" now as ever, but I think there is so much more really useful content that they appear smaller.

At the end of the day, the web is a reflection on the society that creates it. All the criminal, hateful, divisive, and disgusting elements of society are on the web, just like the rest of us. I think the only difference is that it's more difficult to pretend they don't exist online than IRL.

[gonzo]

On the internet you can just filter them out. Try that when someone is holding you at gun point.

[Dirteater]

True enough, and we seem to agree it is a society (as appossed to part of a society). Gonzo does make a good point that we can walk away from the web/or shut off the tv or hang up or whatever, when we want. and you cant do that in real life. However I do like the fact that there are rules (edicate) if you will, that we have to go by. Perhaps it also has something to do with where you go. bntii posses this question in the beginning I think with "Brave New World?" This forum does have an element of wait and see i guess.

[cthippo]

Originally Posted by Dirteater

True enough, and we seem to agree it is a society (as appossed to part of a society). Gonzo does make a good point that we can walk away from the web/or shut off the tv or hang up or whatever, when we want. and you cant do that in real life. However I do like the fact that there are rules (edicate) if you will, that we have to go by. Perhaps it also has something to do with where you go. bntii posses this question in the beginning I think with "Brave New World?" This forum does have an element of wait and see i guess.

Short of perhaps the "gun in your face" (and I would argue even then), you do have the right to disconnect, or hang up, or turn around and walk away. It may be rude and have consequences, but you do have that choice.