the era of the dot com

Never before has the world known of such a thing we call ‘instant communication’. I think that we are living at the peak of human technology. With man’s invention of the transistor, so many (once undreamed) marvelous technologies have become possible.

I think that it is a beautiful thing that I can just log on to the Internet and order a CD player, and have it arrive at my doorstep the next day. And, when I was thinking about that, I was thinking how much of a beautiful thing it is that I can just log on to the Internet at all! I began to think about, ‘what makes the internet?’, and that makes me think about, ‘what makes a computer?’.

Man over the centuries has learned a great deal, but the thing I think about most is the fact that everything we have accomplished, we have done built on the work that others have accomplished. And everything that those others have accomplished has been built on the work that people before them have accomplished. If the world had a huge event of mass destruction that rendered mankind without knowledge but still the same amount of brainpower, we would have absolutely no civilized way to survive, because we would have nowhere to go from. It’s silly thoughts like these that make me very grateful for the time I live in and how advanced that mankind is.

So, back to where I was coming from: I love how I can get online, enter my mom’s credit card number, and expect shipping in a day or so! This is the era of the dot com, past the space age, where we humans communicate in binary. Businesses can make millions of dollars for creating an interactive display of colors on a computer monitor, while I at the same time can expect my new MP3 player in the mail.

It makes me think how funny it is that a person will sit down in one place and observe an illuminated display for several hours and still actually gain lots of information. We are quickly approaching the time where the average American Internet user will be able to connect to the global network at blazing speed.

Day-by-day the possibilities are expanding, due to our technology. I think it is very important that we as a race do not become too materialized with these ‘hi-tech toys’ and still stay in touch with what is really important, but I think the computer in the era of the .com is an outstanding monument of our success.