How the internet is changing the world

[Ivan Seeking]

I notice things constantly. Here is one of the latest.

...JUDY WOODRUFF: And you were saying you see surprising engagement among young people?

ANDREW KOHUT: Yes, a lot of this is people under 50 years of age. The most shocking things in this poll is that more young people gave us the correct answers to what the candidates' positions were on Iraq and abortion than did older voters. I've never seen anything like that.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec08/passionunity_07-10.html

 

[WarPhalange]

It makes me almost sick thinking about how all the past elections have been won and lost. People don't really have a clue what is going on and just vote for the person they do based on very trivial things, like better looks (Nixon vs. Kennedy), or maybe even voice, party affiliation, etc.

 

[lisab]

So to be considered 'young' you have to be under 50? I'd set the criteria a bit lower than that !

 

[Ivan Seeking]

50 sounds good to me!

 

[BryanP]

50? Maybe for Ray Kurzweil.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I don't think it was meant that 50 was the dividing line. But even if so, who has the most time to stay current; working people or retired people? Elders are considered to be rock solid voters.

I particularly love the fact that beyond the daily nonsense, if a politician says something really offensive, he or she will no longer go unnoticed. The internet is helping to not only inform and misinform, but also to police our leaders, and the leaders of all nations.

The ability to log-on and converse with people in France, England, Egypt, Poland, and Zimbabwe, all in one discussion, is mind-blowing!

 

[WarPhalange]

John McCain is having a hard time understanding that he has to watch what he says now. Cell phone cameras + Youtube is a deadly combination.

It's no longer news corporations that keep all the footage and decide that showing something incriminating would mean he won't give them an interview, so they'd better not show it.

 

[bassplayer142]

I believe the internet is helping musicians around the world. A lot of musicians since music was invented were not big until they were discovered. I don't care if your the best musician in the world, if no one hears you, nobody knows. Now-a-days, different social communities let bands be heard and searched from recording company scouts.

But everything has it's drawback. This also means that the worst bands of them all have a chance and with all the horrendous music around today, maybe even succeed.

 

[lisab]

The ability to log-on and converse with people in France, England, Egypt, Poland, and Zimbabwe, all in one discussion, is mind-blowing!

That's a huge change in my life. The ability for the common person to easily hear other points of view has the potential to change the world.

Years ago, I took several classes on computerized map making (a field called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_information_system" ). You wouldn't believe how much data is available from government agencies, free for anyone to download. Anybody can make the COOLEST maps, for free (if you have the software)!

Simply having access to data is mind-blowing.

 

[BobG]

I believe the internet is helping musicians around the world. A lot of musicians since music was invented were not big until they were discovered. I don't care if your the best musician in the world, if no one hears you, nobody knows. Now-a-days, different social communities let bands be heard and searched from recording company scouts.

But everything has it's drawback. This also means that the worst bands of them all have a chance and with all the horrendous music around today, maybe even succeed.

I agree, but the issue of copyright protection has thrown a wrench into things.

The best thing about Napster was being able to browse another user's music directory. If you'd downloaded a couple songs from the same user, you began to get curious about what else they had and it was good way to discover new artists that would never get on the air.

Napster was great for indy musicians. Unfortunately, it wasn't very good for the music industry.

 

[turbo]

The ability to log-on and converse with people in France, England, Egypt, Poland, and Zimbabwe, all in one discussion, is mind-blowing!

On another website, I was discussing interacting galaxies (like M51) and the redshifts of the components. A fellow from Finland pitched in and helped me extend the sample, and another fellow from NY state jumped in, and two years later we have a new catalog of interacting galaxies and a published paper. I've never met either of these guys. That's magic!

http://arxiv.org/abs/0805.1492