If the Internet is your world, you are walking dead.
Please understand that the Internet is not the only possible implementation of networking technology, and hardly the only means to giving life to the nascent Network Civilization. There are numerous parallel networks right now that people ignore every day. What keeps the Internet alive is the profits it makes for those who control the core hardware. At any time, the networking that people actually do could suddenly and irrevocably escape that hardware and leave it in the dust. The technology is already in use, but the urgency to switch over is not there yet. No one can reliably define the tipping point, but that Mr. McAfee is working on a fully automated device to make ad hoc networking possible is a sign of things to come. It will piggyback on the current Internet until it’s no longer necessary.
Have you ever noticed in history how the heedless urge of plutocrats to seize control comes apart just about the time they think they have it all? Empires collapse when they consume more than they can produce internally, and can no longer easily steal it from others. But it works the same for every metaphorical empire, as well. Advertising as we now know it is about to consume itself because marketers reject the notion of boundaries that they shouldn’t cross. The only reason they aren’t robbing and burglarizing is because manipulation is more entertaining. Otherwise, working as a marketer requires you adopt the same moral standards as any crook. Most imperial agencies calcify and attempt to freeze the technology at about the same time it leaps off in another direction. Those who refuse to recognize new ways to make money as the landscape shifts beneath their feet face catastrophe. It’s the same with governments, banks, military, and every other parasitical entity seeking to control some element of human behavior in large groups.
What’s really sad is how vast the portion of humanity that is equally stodgy about inconsequential elements of our daily existence. Social tipping points are often unpredictable, so all the scare-mongering is just about half-correct. That is, we can see it coming, but we can’t possibly nail down the breaking point in the social fabric and mass perception. We tire of the short-lived predictions of apocalypse, yet each one could be relatively accurate if things suddenly reach that invisible breaking point. When it does come, most of those living through it won’t even notice. The larger the shift and the more people affected by it, the harder it is to perceive. Only as we view it through the telescoping lens of history does it seem quick. Living through it can be too distracting for you to realize the magnitude of what’s happening.
You have to be nimble folks. You have to travel light in the sense of your moral burden. If you don’t really have a solid grasp on what matters most to you in moral terms, you won’t be ready for even the slow changes. If I somehow lost the use of the Internet, you can be sure I’d devote more energy to other means of touching my fellow humans. I have a resolute commitment to sharing my loopy religious ideas and spiritual reasoning with others. The Internet is currently the best means of sharing them, but hardly the only means to living out my personal imperatives. I have no idea what kind of changes I can tolerate, and what will even be possible for me tomorrow, but I don’t have to worry about those things. My imperative is simply living with a focus on God’s glory until He takes me home.
While you may not share my vision, I can assure you that your own version needs to have that kind of shape or you won’t do too well in the coming days.
