Zorg Beat 2122

The dialectic of the Internet is the same dialectic as currently employed by most human societies - it's just more EXTREME on the internet. Faster, more dynamic, more encompassing. For example, the above pic is from a thread on Something Awful forums dedicated to the topic "Magazines of the future" (I can't find the thread anymore since I got the pic a few weeks back, and the forums move fast). The concept is as such: Someone creates a thread on a given subject (whatever they want), and if it's engaging/encourages good contributions from others, it thrives for a while. If not, it dies and slinks off to nothingness - pure evolutionary environment of ideas mixed with social persuasion. If popular, talented people from around the world get to work on their respective computer interfaces, and swiftly post entries for the given topic. If well done/well marketed, these works receive attention and adulation; if not, they slink off into nothingness. Evolution! Often, someone develops a riff that others build on, adding onto, like jazz - and that, precisely, is the genius of current human society (overall; there are pockets of exceptions): We are jazz - all life is jazz, but we've taken it to Coltrane levels.

Consider: We as a species are only roughly 200,000 years old; but for the first 80-100,000 years, we existed in much a similar state as our Neanderthal cousins - same technology, same basic diets, same clothing and shelter styles, etc. Everything about us was very similar. But then, in what is now South Africa, one group developed new technology - more specialized blades; hooks for fishing; evidence of other specializations. This led them to start using the ocean for more than shellfish and the like, and the abundance therein. And this abundance allowed this group to thrive, to grow, and I'm sure others learned what they were doing, and copied them, perhaps even adding a few new twists that improved the respective technology, and so on, and on, and quite quickly, relatively speaking (10000 years), this technology spread all across Africa, into the Mediterranean, and with our ancient ancestors heading into Asia and Europe. This technology advanced quickly over short amounts of time, such that when environmental pressures of a new ice age rose, the Neanderthals lost out to the far more advanced Homo Sapiens. Us - and they were just like us, mentally, physically, etc.

We learned a trick, and this trick has served us well: Question, play, dialogue, the battle of ideas amongst people will produce stronger ideas. This is the foundation of Science, and it is Science that has allowed us to split the atom. It was the spirit of Science, in nascent form, that allowed us to develop new hunting tools and techniques, by building upon the ideas of others. It is the spirit of the Internet, natch.

Like jazz, we all have our riffs, and by merging them, adding to them, letting them build us up as we spit them out, we advance, madly, always forward, be-bopping to a future of dizzying solos with melodies mayhaps only decipherable from far, far away. Blow man, blow.

Also, too: Oolon rules.