Disgraceful Rider

The Knowledge Revolution…like the Industrial Revolution is happening and we’re living in interesting times. A programme on TV was about how ordinary people accessing information were able to influence things on a local, country and global scale by banding together with others via the web.  China is struggling to block sites like Twitter fearing a web-based overthrow and actually employs a few thousand people to blog in the regime’s favour fulltime.  Mighty companies can be brought down by a single blogger revealing malpractice. The way the information highway is constructed means that it cannot be blocked. The programme said there are 13 Route Servers in the world in different locations which control and switch all web information – one in California has all the dot coms for instance but even it is backed up offsite somewhere.  Information is broken down into bits and those bits are sent over different routes to be reassembled at the receiving site – so that’s how it works- ooh it was interesting.  With any subject capable of being researched by anyone with a computer and link to the web, it occurs to Rider how much more can be crammed into one lifetime. Will our brains be expanded to contain all this knowledge. Will we evolve mentally to mature and become a better species, start living a more harmonious life with other species… will separate Countries be abolished … will it all end like that fantastic film AI so if ET comes they find only traces in cyberspace of what we once were ?  Random stuff … now Rider is off to Sunday lunch