The power and beauty of the internet starts from a simple premise: connect everyone in the world to a free flowing stream of information. The implications of this technology, however, are immense!
A couple weeks ago, I was thinking about two recent trends that have drastically shaped and transformed my world view: The rise of “New Atheism” and Libertarianism.
I surely would have never been exposed to this information without the internet.
In a phenomenal interview (video, transcript) with one of my idols (The man that drew my attention to atheism and libertarianism….which I listened to on a podcast!), Penn Jillette talks with glen beck about the internet
JILLETTE: But, you know, there`s really cool stuff happening on the Internet. There`s stuff that no one could have imagined. Juggling is better because of the Internet. No one guessed that. But it turns out that you take little video clips of people juggling, and people can watch them in Russia, you know? Those kids get better. Juggling improves. Everybody improves. And as everybody gets to talk to everybody else, I think that`s where we…
…The fact that the Internet is working its way around governments, you know, both really bad governments and pretty good governments, the Internet works around it and gets people around there. You know, there`s a whole problem with stuff not being paid in terms of taxes in cyberspace, and all of that stuff is moving that way.So you`re looking for the solution, things getting better, by going back to the founding fathers, but we`ll go back to the founding fathers through the future. It`s always technology. The United States was invented by the Guttenberg press. You know, that was taking new technology and saying, “Wait a minute. What if we took this to the logical conclusion?”
And the ideas were profound enough, they are the only ideas that can include the Internet. An idea of a top-down government does not include the Internet. And the Internet is more powerful than any government, because the Internet is nothing except individual people talking to…
…Well, you have a built-in meritocracy. You can`t tell who`s putting the stuff out there. But it`s really bad, because it means that the person that teaches you fire-eating on the Web might have the wrong information, you know?
BECK: You don`t know what the truth is sometimes.
JILLETTE: But my children, you know, who are 2 1/2 years old and 1 1/2 years old, and are going to go on the Internet, are going to have skills that I can`t imagine, to be able to tell what`s bogus and what`s real and how to get there. And we`re worried so much about predators and people finding our children on the Web, what we don`t realize is, in this particular battle, our children will be better than us. They will know more about how to protect themselves than we ever could.
I took some of that quote out of context, and I realize its pretty verbose, but I really liked what Penn was saying.
I just wanted to expand on his statement of the internet having a built in “meritocracy”:
The commenting system on blogs and media articles along with the whole user driven “web 2.0″ keeps everything in check far better than any mainstream media source: Read any blog or article online, then check the comments. Any misrepresentation, or erroneous statement will be addressed. Everything can be edited and corrected by any reader. The concept of wikipedia is applied to every article.
In this environment, “good” ideas will flourish to the top. The truth will prevail. We will be smarter and better informed. By simply being able to communicate with one another, we can analyze and discuss every piece of information, creating a discourse that benefits all participants and is documented to ensure accuracy and future availability.
Only time will tell how effective the internet will be in promoting the “truth” or at least righteous values. I, however, am pretty optimistic that we are just beginning to realize its potential.
