The miracle of the internet
February 17, 2016 at 1:12 am
(This post was last modified: February 17, 2016 at 1:14 am by drfuzzy.)
(I didn't know WHERE to put this post, folks. Where should it go?)
Some of you younglings (by which I mean anyone under 45!) out there may not understand this post. Just chill, lovely brilliant ones, and maybe grant me the honor of reading my old-lady ramblings.
As many of you know, I am an amateur genealogist. Well, I just finished watching a show where LL Cool J's family tree was created - - using genetic testing. His mother was adopted. AMAZING!!! And I wonder how anyone can even question evolution these days, when we can be tested to see how much Neanderthal DNA, or Denisovan, that we carry? There was no way to test DNA when I was a girl. No way to determine "who the father was". Scientific advancement, people.
But geez, that got me thinking. It's the internet, isn't it? Younglings, when I was 10, there was no internet. No home computers. TV's had three local channels and that was amazing. Hell, there weren't even any phone answering machines. It was a technological marvel to be able to speak to someone in another state. Consider that for a moment. No cellphones. No computers.
I remember being absolutely astounded . . . when I sent an e-mail to my Uncle, who was working in a science lab at the South Pole . . . and got an answer within a half hour! Letters took more than a week just to get to him! Then my brother showed me a game site. I played a game of Spades with a couple from Taiwan and a guy from Sweden. Mind-boggling.
But my friends . . . that's just IT. When I was a little girl, my world was small. Basically, it was school and home and church. It was easy to dismiss the plights of people in other parts of the world. Basically, they didn't exist. We wouldn't ever meet any of them. Then I played a game of Spades with a couple from Taiwan and a guy from Sweden. In real time. We could chat, and tell each other about our lives. And the world . . . opened. OMG, it makes me so . . . grateful.
It's the internet that has broken our insular tribal thinking. And the internet that has enabled us to see a global humanity. And the internet that has enabled atheists to share their thoughts and reach out to others. Thoughts, folks? How do you think that global communications has helped atheism?
Some of you younglings (by which I mean anyone under 45!) out there may not understand this post. Just chill, lovely brilliant ones, and maybe grant me the honor of reading my old-lady ramblings.
As many of you know, I am an amateur genealogist. Well, I just finished watching a show where LL Cool J's family tree was created - - using genetic testing. His mother was adopted. AMAZING!!! And I wonder how anyone can even question evolution these days, when we can be tested to see how much Neanderthal DNA, or Denisovan, that we carry? There was no way to test DNA when I was a girl. No way to determine "who the father was". Scientific advancement, people.
But geez, that got me thinking. It's the internet, isn't it? Younglings, when I was 10, there was no internet. No home computers. TV's had three local channels and that was amazing. Hell, there weren't even any phone answering machines. It was a technological marvel to be able to speak to someone in another state. Consider that for a moment. No cellphones. No computers.
I remember being absolutely astounded . . . when I sent an e-mail to my Uncle, who was working in a science lab at the South Pole . . . and got an answer within a half hour! Letters took more than a week just to get to him! Then my brother showed me a game site. I played a game of Spades with a couple from Taiwan and a guy from Sweden. Mind-boggling.
But my friends . . . that's just IT. When I was a little girl, my world was small. Basically, it was school and home and church. It was easy to dismiss the plights of people in other parts of the world. Basically, they didn't exist. We wouldn't ever meet any of them. Then I played a game of Spades with a couple from Taiwan and a guy from Sweden. In real time. We could chat, and tell each other about our lives. And the world . . . opened. OMG, it makes me so . . . grateful.
It's the internet that has broken our insular tribal thinking. And the internet that has enabled us to see a global humanity. And the internet that has enabled atheists to share their thoughts and reach out to others. Thoughts, folks? How do you think that global communications has helped atheism?
"The family that prays together...is brainwashing their children."- Albert Einstein
