Crazy Like Me!

"The Global Village." Its a term used to describe how interconnected the world is now. I can easily chat with someone in Japan while holding a conversation with a friend traveling in Germany. Technology in our world has brought people together in a way that it has never done so before. Sure you could pick up your phone, dial 1 for long distance, then your country code followed by any regional prefix, then area code, local exchange, and finally their phone number and get a hold of my friend for the low price of $0.90 a minute or more, but that hardly gives people the ability to easily share ideas and find others interested in the same things that they are.

This ability to freely share ideas has been a great boon to many. They can find help with projects they work on or just connect with new friends, but is it possible that it is also a negative thing? Before reading further, keep in mind that this is purely an academic discussion. I don't necessarily have these opinions, its just food for thought.

So how would the free sharing of ideas be a negative thing? Perhaps in the sharing of concepts, thoughts, and interests that are part of a subculture that goes against the status quo. That in and of itself might not be a negative, until you add what group it might be that is connecting. People spreading hate and intolerance (groups like Neo Nazis), people sharing misinformation (conspiracy theorists with outlandish and unlikely scenarios), people with strange fetishes (furries). I am loathe to use this example (if only because of the setting), but anyone who has used the online "game" Second Life has more than likely run into at least one person who ran around dressed as a giant fox to derive sexual pleasure. To contrast, of the people that play Second Life, how many people have been walking down the street and bumped into a man in a fursuit? Willing to bet that number is very, very small. If it were not for technology, these people may never realize that there is another person out there with these same interests or even realize that they themselves had these interests.

Another example. A young boy, 17 or so, starts surfing the Internet and comes across a website dedicated to the eradication of a specific ethnic group. He starts reading their propaganda and agreeing with them. Maybe he feels the same way before or perhaps just reading what is being said sways his opinion, but without the ability to come across a website that was created for little, if not zero, money he may have either not felt any animosity towards these groups or maybe kept it to himself. By finding others that agree with him, he now doesn't feel that he may be wrong and more than likely would be more willing to openly state his feelings.

The question I put before you, is this a positive or negative thing? If negative, then does it outweigh the good that is brought about by the same technology? Does the ability to easily and freely spread hate outweigh the ability to find new friends or share scientific advancements that may save millions of lives?

Personally I feel that while there are many negative outcomes from any technology, there is always good and we shouldn't hinder ourselves due to possibly negative outcomes. Nuclear power plants provide energy to millions of homes in the United States alone, but you can't research the production of clean energy without seeing the possibility of creating a extremely powerful weapon. In much the same way, you can't freely share ideas without some ideas slipping through that others question. In the end someone is always going to question if these ideas should be repressed, its your job as an individual to decide what ideas are or are not valid, don't let someone else make the decision for you.

For the record I am fairly moderate in my views. I don't think its the government's or anyone else's place to tell a person what they can or cannot do in the privacy of their own home. While I might not understand a persons interest, and in some cases find it repulsive, so long as you aren't doing it on my coffee table or front lawn, I don't really care.