Reading about stuff like peak oil and global warming and other possibly apocalyptic events... not terribly scary. So what's really terrifying?
The other day, a colleague idly asked, "What would you do if there was no internet?"
"Die," I said, only half-jokingly.
Seriously. When I think about how central the computer and the internet is to my life, it's mind-boggling. I'm logged on at least 7 hours a day at work, and at least another 4 hours at home. That probably qualifies as 'addicted' by some thresholds. For example, a study defines internet addicts as those who spend over 11 hours A WEEK on the internet.
What stone-age are they living in?? Eleven hours a week? I can easily spend 11 hours a day, many days in a row, on the internet. And I'm paid to do so for at least seven of those hours. Looking closely, the study was published in the... May 1998 issue of Professional Psychology. No wonder, I thought, and rolled my eyes.
We're all cyborgs. When we take into account the aspects of our lives that are dependent, not only on the internet but on artificial support systems in general, we are all cyborgs. Sci-fi writers such as Arthur C. Clarke often envisioned a space travel-centric future, fifty years ago, but I think the future will be much, much closer to that imagined by Ghost in the Shell.
And since we are all cyborgs, it is possible we would probably drop dead, or at least wander around aimlessly and drool like zombies, if there was no internet.
Southpark did a brilliant episode on this issue, and simultaneously slipping in the issue of peak oil, titled 'Overlogging'.
The other day, a colleague idly asked, "What would you do if there was no internet?"
"Die," I said, only half-jokingly.
Seriously. When I think about how central the computer and the internet is to my life, it's mind-boggling. I'm logged on at least 7 hours a day at work, and at least another 4 hours at home. That probably qualifies as 'addicted' by some thresholds. For example, a study defines internet addicts as those who spend over 11 hours A WEEK on the internet.
What stone-age are they living in?? Eleven hours a week? I can easily spend 11 hours a day, many days in a row, on the internet. And I'm paid to do so for at least seven of those hours. Looking closely, the study was published in the... May 1998 issue of Professional Psychology. No wonder, I thought, and rolled my eyes.
We're all cyborgs. When we take into account the aspects of our lives that are dependent, not only on the internet but on artificial support systems in general, we are all cyborgs. Sci-fi writers such as Arthur C. Clarke often envisioned a space travel-centric future, fifty years ago, but I think the future will be much, much closer to that imagined by Ghost in the Shell.
And since we are all cyborgs, it is possible we would probably drop dead, or at least wander around aimlessly and drool like zombies, if there was no internet.
Southpark did a brilliant episode on this issue, and simultaneously slipping in the issue of peak oil, titled 'Overlogging'.
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