The Web Hermit

[palefrost]

The last ten years have seen the Internet move from a global porn distribution network to becoming one of the true wonders of the modern world.

The notion of people living most of their lives in the internet is increasing. Is there anything that we really need good old fashioned Real Life for any more? Is a life of doing things and meeting people as our primitive ancestors in the late 20th Century knew it becoming redundant?

 

[l99999us]

The web is good certainly but it is nice to get human contact too from time to time. I don't think the web could ever replace this need entirely. i think their will always be a life outside the net and old-fashoined contact.

peace

-Todd

 

[sarah]

The web is good certainly but it is nice to get human contact too from time to time. I don't think the web could ever replace this need entirely. i think their will always be a life outside the net and old-fashoined contact.

peace

-Todd

There will always be people who perfer digital contact to the real thing. think about it, you can now work online, date online shop online... damn near anything you can do in the real world can be simulated in the digital realm.
some people just like it that way.

 

[l99999us]

That's probably true. It will of course depend on the individual. I can handle both and didn't mean to say their was necessarilly anything wrong with the internet. I do think thpough that human to human contact will never go away.

peace

-Todd

There will always be people who perfer digital contact to the real thing. think about it, you can now work online, date online shop online... damn near anything you can do in the real world can be simulated in the digital realm.
some people just like it that way.

 

[sarah]

And it shouldn't go away. Everyone needs at least occasional human interaction outside of the computer world.

 

[Brandon]

There is a world outside of this thing called the Internet? Show me!

 

[dong]

Brandon: You cannot deny that we live a corporeal existence. The most extreme example- if your muscles atrophy and your heart fails because you didn't treat it right, guess you're dead. There is no actual substitute for human contact (and I'm really one to talk since I'm holding down a stable online relationship, gosh.)

But the original points still stand: the internet is a very powerful tool. I'm interested in noting how the main communications and methods of knowledge transfer have shifted away from mass distribution to the old fashioned word-of-mouth once more. The voice lies with the people again!

 

[Brandon]

Your absolutely right dong. The internet can be used for a variety of things, but humans need real life human contact. Anything else and we feel incomplete (well 99.9% of us do).

 

[palefrost]

Just a idol musing on this.

The other night i was talking with a friend who kept suggesting that the computer age was started by alien technology. He kept pointing out how fast it hit and without a real prototype age.....

 

[dong]

I would doubt this- to be honest I would tell him that he is being limited by the extent of his own comprehension. If one were to create an index of relative accomplishment and technological advancement, it would appear to be increasing at an exponential rate. I'm not sure why one requires a "prototype" age but there were certainly prototypes for computers (Mark III and ENIAC to name two examples...if my memory serves me well). Developments elsewhere were also integrated into the field.

That said, I would not dismiss the possibility of life elsewhere, or that technology we have here can (will) hold common elements to technology other life forms may have...if they use technology. But again, any speculation or imagination on this matter is limited by the extent of our own perception.