The Final Version of the Internet

The Internet is an interesting medium. It offers vast amounts of information and entertainment. There are many beneficial, and detrimental aspects of the world wide web. It has moved passed the novelty stage and is now moving into being viewed as a utility, something everyone needs. There is one terrible problem with the Internet, one that can be easily seen since its inception, fragmentation of society.

Before the Internet, people lived together in communities based on general attributes; such as color, religion, and place employment. Because there were still large variations of people within those populations, extremist viewpoints were muted, and only powerful hatred of others created smaller segmented groups. Then the Internet came into being.

With the Internet, anyone with a certain viewpoint can easily seek out others of the same mind, and in doing so have their own viewpoint validated. This can be something as simple as a group of people thinking that their particular favorite brand is the greatest product of its type, or something dangerous like new hate groups forming around ideas the are easily reinforced by others.

The Internet creates islands of people with similar mindsets. On these islands they are able to emotionally separate themselves from people of different opinions and ways. When the island of opinion is formed around something negative, this creates a dangerous combination that can more easily lead to violence than in the past.

The future of the Internet is something far grander than most can picture. There will be a day soon when we become plugged into the Internet, but not the Internet as you think of it today. It will be a connection of minds. A joining of billions of intellects working for one common purpose, the bettering of humanity.

When everyone is connected the idea of harming someone else becomes impossible. The idea of ownership also vanishes. All of society ills start to disappear as a new reality comes about. With billions of minds connected, scientific advancement enters a completely different level of acceleration.

This idea has been rolling around in my head for a few years, and I hope to hash it out in more detail.