Monday, February 5, 2007

400% faster internet service (link).Faster... Better?

Undoubtedly, changes in technology can be a wonderful thing. Faster internet abilities will open doors that we never even dreamed of, a decade ago when we were still struggling with 24K modems!

We are living through a huge BOOM in Information Technology and I am not one to complain about progress. Nevertheless, I can't keep from asking myself... Are we becoming better people from all this progress? I'm sure that Mr. Bush and Mr. Blaire had all the information they would ask for immediaely at their fingertips via the highest speed communications networks available throughout the Iraq war. Did this allow them to make the right decisions? Is it a case of GIGO (garbage in, garbage out)?

Perhaps our children, grandchildren and their grandchildren will be able to process information at the speeds they are becoming available. Personally, I find it hard to comprehend information at a greater speed than the one it takes for me to read it and think about it. Downloading 100 books in an hour does not make me able to read 100 books in an hour. It also does not make me able to write 100 books in an hour.

Let's not mistake quantity for quality. The learning curve on how to be a humane human is very steep.