Do You Believe In Magic?
Read this sentence, then stop and think about what you’re doing right now. Go ahead, I’ll wait…
.
.
You are sitting in front of a very complex piece of equipment — something that did not exist when you were a child — reading this material which resides on a server — another even more complicated piece of equipment — somewhere on the planet — written by someone you’ve likely never met or seen — all connected with wires and cables and wireless radio signals and satellites orbiting the Earth. In 1907, 100 years ago, none of this existed, and only a few brave but thought-to-be-wacko science fiction writers dared even dream of such. Fifty years ago, in 1957, when I was in high school, none of this existed.
Now stop and think what you were doing in 1987, just twenty years ago, when Reagan was President, Nine Inch Nails (the band) had not yet been formed, Paul Simon’s Graceland was the album of the year, the Miami Hurricanes went 12-0-0 to become the NCAA Football Champions, and gawd-awful slow (300 baud (bps), or for the fortunate few who could afford several hundred dollars, a 1200 baud) dial-up modem connections to text based bulletin boards were being tinkered with by nerds like me (the word geek had not yet been adopted into usage in this context) seeking technology thrills. Again, think about it while I get another cup of coffee…
.
.
We so quickly become hooked on blogging that we rarely stop to think about the technology and infrastructure behind it. We are zooming along on water skis with no thought of the boat or the towrope. Most of us never even consider our destination — we’re just out here enjoying the thrills, the speed, the wind and spray in our hair. The third rock from the Sun has been enveloped in a spider web network of communications links and media and equipment that was unthinkable just twenty years ago. The screen displaying my words for you to read, the little gadget dubbed a mouse and the keyboard you use to enter the name of another destination to get away from my rambling, and the box with the brains or guts of your computer, are things you did not dream of existing, much less owning, 20 years ago. You may not understand how they work or what’s inside the box, yet you immerse yourself in the use of it for hours at a time on a daily basis. It’s addictive. And it’s almost like magic…
Frank Paynter had a recent post about Doris Lessing, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Frank’s post, along with the links he provides, are worthy reads. Announcing the award in Stockholm, the Swedish Academy described Ms. Lessing as that epicist of the female experience, who with skepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny. What an accolade! One of Frank’s links is to Lessing’s biographical and bibliographical site, which, when I first visited, had this quote emblazoned across the screen ‘neath the header:
I am so happy to be communicating with people on this newest of new wavelengths which to some older people must seem like a kind of magic. — Doris Lessing
Ms. Lessing has made 88 orbits of the Sun. A fellow writer gentleman of 90 years had a similar sentiment:
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. — Arthur C. Clark
The technology we use has created an entire brave new world — a culture within and across cultures, and without physical or political boundaries. Indeed, the technology we are using has created we – an entity built on relationships that did not and could not exist just a few short years ago. While there are participants in the blog world that have more readership and higher statistics than others, this may be the ultimate democratic forum. We all have a voice. We each can choose which communities to participate in, or not, and to what extent, and can change that decision as desired to meet our current needs. We may join together in loose coalitions with specific aims from time to time. Those coalitions, or virtual families, may or may not have hierarchies. They may endure or may dissolve or morph into a different subset as aims and objectives are met or modified.
Blogging as we know it today will not endure. Rather, it will continue to change as the underlying enabling technology evolves, and as we learn how to shape and use these activities for achieving our individual and collective objectives. Whether called blogging or something else, the future of this medium will have at its core, open and free communications, or links, among participants. As now, that communication will include broadcast to the entire population and point-to-point or node-to-node messages between individuals. Political, religious, commerce, and entertainment leaders who ignore the potential power of this medium will lag behind those who recognize early and participate fully.
If political war-mongers and religious zealots do not annihilate all of us from the planet, we have an opportunity to develop a worldwide culture that is based more on cooperation than on competition. We do not know what the technology will look like in 20 years, or 10 years, or next year for that matter. The best guesses of the most technically astute among us would be wrong. What we do know is that to us, right now, here in the final days of 2007, our future technology would appear to be magic to us now.
13 Comments so far
I enjoyed this, Winston. Every once in a while, it’s good–and important–to get off whatever ride we happen to be on and take a good look at the conveyance.
I suspect I may have told this on your blog before, but it bears mentioning again: In 1979, I believe it was, my homeroom teacher in high school showed me one of the very earliest desktop computers and said, “John, in ten years every house in America will have one of these.” I thought he was nuts; to get it to do anything at all, you basically had to program it as you used it. And now . . . just as you say, there are people in Europe I have “met” via this medium whom I’ve known now for four and five years whom I’ve never actually seen and yet are closer to me than some folks I physically see every day at work.
I have mused many a time on what the concept of “here” means when the space spoken of is a blog or, for that matter, the blogosphere in general. It’s a whole new metaphysics, no?
Winston, this just knocked the wind out of me…in a good way. And, I have not yet followed the links in your post.
Thank you for the wake-up and reminder that we have much to be in awe of today and that the future is really incomprehensible to almost everyone.
Magic. Indeed.
Lord, Winston - send this in to the Times! Great post, sir.
My Gran was a young girl before man learned powered flight (Gustav Weisskopf?) and lived to see Neil Armstrong on the moon. What a rapidly changing world we live in!
Winston, this was nicely written! And you are absolutely correct, there does seem to be a magic quality to me sitting here and reading your words…and then typing a comment that the entire world can read almost instantly. The power for all of us to be publishers - creators of our own content - and share that with the world is must incredible.
I know it will continue to change and evolve, and I look forward to going along on that ride.
I had a “pen pal” as a teenager in the 1950’s, I exchanged professional tips and information via the University’s internet with folks with similar jobs around the country in the 1980’s, and now I get to read and interact with you and your friends in my dotage. I am grateful for the magic. Thank you for reminding us of our blassings.
Happy New Year, Winston!
I was a participant in the bulltein boards and two of them are now on the web. I met some (some literally) of the most interesting, intelligent, nice people I’ve ever met in my life. My computer taught me that yes, there’s a place where I — nerdy old broad that I am –fit in. God knows we all loved our sysops, Winston!
Something that did not exist when I was a child. Indeed I have thought about this often. And it is magic. And this reminds me of a song with the line - do you believe in magic? and I cannot recall the rest of the words.
I can remember exactly where I was when man walked on the moon and who I was with, they were all Americans.
A thought provoking post W
Happy New Year, and a wish that all you hope for comes to be. Kind regards
It is an amazing thing how our world has changed. Once in awhile I look at the statistics of who is visiting my blog and often almost half have come from other countries. Blogs unite us in a way that was not remotely possible though any other media because it’s uncontrolled– person to person. We can get to know that we all have things in common that often our respective governments would rather not have us know.
I have always thought that blogging or even the Internet, as it is, may not always be with us. I will enjoy it while it’s here– although I don’t want to carry it around with me on my cell phone. It’s nice to have it accessible, but I don’t want it to be my master.
So much has changed in my lifetime in terms of technology. I was born when there was not television, grew up when it was one black and white channel, then three, eventually color, and now look at it. Nothing stays the same and those who do the best in the world are those willing to adapt to changes– personally or globally.
Happy New Year! Hope it’s a good one for you and yours.
It is magic surely? How could so much power be in such a tiny thing else?
Happy new year to you and Roomie.
Thanks for calling in twice yesterday!
in 1987 I became a grandmother for the first time…sigh*…
I remember going out and buying a color tv so I could watch the landing on the moon..and my neighbors and my 2 small sons and I watched it and thought we will never forget this…when computers first came out I was ‘who needs this shit’..not me..and now..can’t live without the sucker..
great post winston.as always..