It is interesting to view technology as augmentations of our innate abilities as humans. The telescope is an expansion of the eye; the car is an expansion of the legs; the remote control is an expansion of our overwhelming desire to be very, very lazy.
With the invention of writing and the invention of mass producing this writing, we have invented a technology that augments the brain. When we collected this writing into a central location, Holy Great Ghosts of Alexandria, Batman!, we were really on to something.
But the internet is truly an evolutionary milestone. Now the central location for information is everywhere.The earth is now wired in such a way that hubs of knowledge pepper the surface of the planet almost resembling neurons in the brain, and these hubs connect and reconnect like neural pathways.
The Great Global Brain: an open source of vast amounts of information accessible anywhere.
And this is the beauty of it all: Somewhere out there is a very brilliant child, living somewhere in an impoverished nation which would have never been able to provide crucial information to fire this young mind's imagination. But now, with a simple computer and modem, an unimaginably vast world opens to them.
How many great minds never came to fruition because they didn't have access?
Out there is a cure for disease, a revolutionary energy source, and a change in the view of the universe as profound as Einstein imagining flying along side a beam of light.
Plus it is a good way to find and buy vintage toys you loved as a child such as my beloved robot pal 2XL:
