I’ve been hearing some talk lately, that certain people in the upper eschelons are a bit “concerned” about all the stuff that’s flying across the internet. They’re wanting to find ways and means to curtail it, control it, and by all means make a profit from it.
People are sharing, that is, making available without paying a “gate keeper” or wanting payment for themselves, all kinds of information, data, music, literature, opinions, dissent, free expression, art, just about anything you could imagine.
This has some people worried.
They don’t like the idea of the free exchange of ideas (emphasis on “free”).
They don’t like it that they can’t regulate it, control it, withold it, only distribute it to the highest bidders or not distribute it at all and keep everyone in “mushroom mode”, in the dark and having to eat bullshit.
They see the internet as the “monster in the box” that once unleashed, can’t be stopped short of a total lockdown.
So far, I’ve seen the Net as a means of connectivity in a world where people are becoming more and more isolated, at least it has been that way for myself personally.
I like technology, but I’m worried. However, I’m worried for different reasons than the mucky mucks.
Technology is a beast, wild and perceived as (so far) free and far from tame. But maybe not as free as we would think, as somebody pays the price for all the non renewable energy spent (read oil economy) to keep all those computers, servers, and whatnot up and running. Somebody pays the price for all the hazardous waste that used, old, broken computers provide in all the landfills. Somebody pays, and that somebody is usually someone in a place that has little or no use for or access to computers, limited energy resources, crushing poverty rates. What we suck up and use up in our part of the world causes a deficit and suffering in another part of the world.
So how do we get our technology to be more globally friendly, less hazardous, and of course get it to live up to and KEEP the real meaning of FREE in every sense?
How about a laptop computer made of bio-degradable yet durable materials, running with its own little solar panel, also made of bio degradables? Not only that but it would be affordable to everybody who wanted one?
How about an internet that is completely wireless using frequencies similar to radio waves or what cordless phones use?
How about a win-win situation where everybody’s happy, and even the mucky mucks get a REASONABLE profit for their services, and instead of exploiting the world, we are contributing and no one starves or goes homeless or has to work for slave wages.
How about a world where landfills aren't needed because everything we use is re-usable and we don't create waste that sticks around for a million or more years?
A world where we re-think what our needs really are, where we live simply and everybody benefits? A world that has become smaller, more "homey" because people aren't isolated anymore?
I want to keep this vision firm in my heart and mind. Dreams are the stuff reality’s made of.
