Friday, July 21, 2006

The New Tower of Babel?

I presented a lesson on Sunday based on the article I wrote for truth for today's youth. One of the points mentioned the fact that the 'net is a tremendous source of information and unless it's in a different character set (cyrillic, kanji, etc...) it really is breaking down communication barriers.

An older brother who is one of the exceptional (from my experience) seniors who is fairly 'net connected made a statement following the assembly that was pretty profound and a little disturbing. I don't remember the exact words that he used, but the idea is this: thinking of all of the connections we have, the barriers to communication are dropping and in some way, the internet/ISS/etc... are reminding him of the tower of Babel.

That got me thinking: So, language was made different for people when they were too tightly bound together, we're doing something similar with the 'net - for good and bad - what is our consequence going to be?

This is maybe just the paranoid part of me, but I think we are too much focused on the division of labor in our society and if something serious were to happen (low-yield nuke detonated a few dozen miles above the U.S. to set off an EMP that would effectively immobilize us) most folks wouldn't know how to make it without cell phones and computers (in everything from toasters, to most cars built after the mid 90's).

I think more of us need to spend some time in the heartland, visit with the DeVores, and stock up on supplies at lehmans.

Have a beautiful weekend (^_^)

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