Humanity and the Internet

And why the latest technological paradigm is a global force for good.

Have you ever wondered why modern material lifestyles are so unfulfilling? Or inquisitively pondered your role in a mass society unconsciously striving toward some unseen goal?

Increasingly, more of us are realizing that we don’t want nine-to-five jobs, hour-long commutes, highly processed food and to spend the majority of our waking lives living in fluorescently-lit concrete caves. Being a cog in the wheel of an artificial industrial-corporate estate is hardly the fulfillment of human potential.

We want to build societies where everyone is happy, healthy and all life is respected, where our ingenuity and creativity bring us to a more loving and connected state of consciousness, and where our mastery of our material world affords us a life of luxury and contemplation. A world of limitless clean energy and complete freedom to travel, learn, love and grow.

Can this be achieved? Can the development and distribution of new technologies ameliorate social ills and usher in a new age of peace and enlightenment?

Perhaps. But before this occurs, there must be a corresponding increase in the kindness of humanity toward one another, lest we face the consequences of the misuse of such power.

History has shown that new technologies often drive social change. Those who control the manufacture and distribution of these technologies often try to convince society of their benefits while simultaneously exploiting their position to consolidate political and economic control of that same society.

The development of science, industry and trade in the last 500 years has brought us great material wealth and driven global economic growth to heights unseen in human history—but this development has also allowed us to project the negative aspects of human nature further and with more force across the nations of earth. Warfare, greed and lust for power, once constrained by the limits of a day’s ride on horseback, can now be spread across the globe within hours. With great power comes great responsibility, and as history in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries has shown, great technological advancements for the betterment of society are often matched with great technological inventions for the destruction of life.

As the Age of Reason blossomed into the Enlightenment,abolishing superstition and expanding our rational understanding of our world, so too did the dawn of chemistry blossom into the science of harvesting energy from the reactions of elements, bequeathing to us an expansive knowledge of explosives.

The discovery of petroleum fueled the development of the internal combustion engine, a profound tool that liberated millions from the daily toil of hand and horse, giving humanity unmatched mobility on the ground and through the air. However, once weaponized and used to propel armies across the plains of Europe, Russia, and North Africa, it facilitated the oppression of millions of people for decades.

Today petroleum and internal combustion engines are the lifeblood of our civilization—but greed and the cutthroat economic and political decisions made to secure profits from such industries has brought untold misery to millions and suppressed the development and distribution of new technologies designed for the liberation of mankind.

However, one technology whose manufacture and distribution has foiled all attempts at centralized control,whose recent implementation and explosive growth has allowed for unparalleled and unfettered transmission of ideas across the globe in seconds, whose influence has improved the lives of billions of people, fueling explosive economic and cultural growth is…

THE INTERNET.

Metaphorically speaking, the internet is a meshing of the conscious and unconscious minds of humanity—an information ecosystem whose resiliency and resourcefulness is drawn from the resiliency and resourcefulness of the human spirit. Truly, the internet is “all things to all people of peace”. From a spiritual/intellectual perspective,the internet IS “the second coming”.

No greater device for the liberation of the minds of mankind has ever been conceived. No greater tool was ever invented for the transmission of ideas to mind-boggling numbers of minds. And though many governments have sought to control it, it has proven that it cannot be controlled. In a free and open market of ideas, even the traditional propaganda techniques used in the 20th century to control perceptions of the masses are no longer working; there are always competing perspectives and alternative sources of information.

The internet cannot be suppressed. The flow of information cannot be stopped.

The internet gives me hope for humanity. I believe in the inherent goodness of most people (aside from sociopaths, who are found to occur at a rate of around 1% in the world’s population), and as long as people who love life outnumber the people who seek to destroy it, the internet will remain a force for good.

Because of this, our global society is in the midst of a profound change. The advent of streaming video, video blogging and the empowerment of alternative media and citizen reporters has suddenly put a very real, human face on every global news event. Everyone is becoming visually connected. We can now see and feel the humanity and of people in Hong Kong, Moscow, Nairobi and Buenos Aires, all without leaving the comfort of our chairs.

Truly, the internet, like some ancient power attained by yogis high in the Himalayas, is now in the hands and minds of people the world over. Traveling without movement, the internet drives the expansion of our conscious awareness in ways that have never been seen before.

The physiology of our humble species, derived from fruit and nut loving tropical apes, is now thrust into a 24-hour culture of communication—that same face-to-face communication that was arguably one of the most powerful driving evolutionary forces in the development of our language faculties and social structure, has now become a tsunami of information. A barrage of sensory data now assaults brains derived from millions of years of sitting under trees contemplating the location of the next banana.

And so we go, bounding into the underbrush of the digital age, hooting and hollering at each other through miles of wires, searching for the next best food, mating and nesting opportunities, uncertain of when or where this digital thicket of opportunity is going, but thoroughly enjoying the rapidity and scale of our conversations with each other.