I'm absolutely astounded by the cybergenius of the Internet!

I can correspond with Martin in Denmark and talk about Gil Ofarim. I can download music video files from Dallas, Texas. I can talk to IrishBob out in California with the click of a mouse button. I can download other files from Sweden, all while posting on this forum!

Amazing! I NEVER imagined such communication five years ago, let alone while I was a child watching reruns of Gilligan's Isle, when media was a boring rehash of reruns and stupid poppycock news.

The progress in the last three years has been phenomenal! I can purchase books and other merchandise from Scamazon.com or other web sites if they have better prices. I can link to ANYWHERE!

The negative aspect is that millions of people willingly link to porn and other filth. It's so easy. Savvy kids know the mode, and most of their parents are without a clue regarding this vast Cyberarena of potential discoveries. Thus cybertrash infiltrates young receptive minds and souls. This is a great tragedy which will increase in the days before America falls in judgment...

Is the Internet CyberBabylon?

dinosaur_extinct

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), February 19, 2000

Answers

Dear dinosaur, I cannot believe the free information available. It boggles the mind to seek and weigh opposite opinions, with a fast click. I think it might be a way of "running to and fro". Trying to keep in prospective, that my 24 hour, 365 days per year, are only Earthly times.

-- Peace I (giveto@you.com), February 19, 2000.

I can click an email link to Nina in Oregon and rap for fun. I can write a doomer response to Flint in Alabama. I can send a weird missive to my ex-best friend in Wauseon, Ohio, where I'm assured his wife will delete it before he can read it. ;(

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), February 19, 2000.

RETRACTION: from my post, after really reading: "let alone while I was a child watching reruns of Gilligan's Island when media was a boring rehash of reruns". Catch phrase is "Reruns".

-- Peace I (giveto@you.com), February 19, 2000.

dinosaur, prography was easily available even before the Internet. Since we don't look for it, we don't find it here... I've made a lot of friends everywhere and can conduct business online, which is terrific. I can interview people via email and transfer files.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), February 19, 2000.

The Internet is like money: it can be used for good or evil.

All of life is a choice.

-- Connie (hive@gte.net), February 19, 2000.

Mara, I don't know where you live, but in my expexience porn was never easily available until the Net put at our fingertips. Yes it is a choice, an easy one to make with just a few clicks.

-- canthappen (n@ysayer.com), February 20, 2000.

On a positive side, My brothers and sisters talk to each other more than when we were growing up together. Email everyday from all of them. Its left my 88 year old Mom in the dust. The net has also helped out a great deal in a family crisis.

-- Bill (sticky@2sides.tape), February 20, 2000.

Last night hubby was in a philosophical discussion with friend from Oz, all the way around the world, need a quote from Plato, or Socrates, or somesuch...had to move his trackball from arm of recliner, keyboard from lap, climb the stairs to one of the many rooms containing our several thousand books (took a few decades to acquire that many books), go to next room to finally locate two books, come back down to resettle in recliner ( I have his computer hooked to big screen TV, pip and DSL, mind you), ........... took about 15 minutes...then another 10 minutes or so before putting books aside...not yet having found the quote and a bit grumpy. Two(2) minutes searching the Internet and he found the exact quote he was looking for.

Just last year it may have taken him 10 or 15 minutes to find the quote on Internet. We've been on-line for years and until just the past couple of years still had to make trips to the medical library for research. Don't even have to do that now!!

We LOVE books and have a personal library that would delight most. (Sure is H*LL to move though.) Last night hubby was finally convinced that we could start our planned life change, of moving off-grid into a 30 ft. Yurt and SURVIVE with a small collection of cookbooks and those few "special" books all fitting on ONE medium size bookshelf.

We certainly appreciate having this access to the world of knowledge.

-- granny-TX (westamyx@bigfoot.com), February 20, 2000.

I think the Internet is a mixed blessing. It is obviously a major and expansive source for all kinds of information. Everything from legitimate news to sappy "please forward this" hearts and flowers webpages are out there at a click. As someone who made a career in the media, I can also appreciate, and enjoy, the exciting and rapid access to personal communication via e-mail. Even though I find most chat rooms vulgar and mindless, I accept that it fills a void for some folks in need.

The bad stuff is also available at a click, and therein lies the problem. Pornography was around long before the Internet, yet it still manages to pollute the atmosphere. Moving down the cyber food chain, we find the other predators in our midst...the spammers, the chain letter purveyors, the fast buck pitch artists who hope you will give up your hard earned money if you will only "click here for details"... or other such nonsense.

The very worst of the bad guys are the ones who prey on the gullible, the innocent and the young. Too many kids fall victim to Internet perverts to ignore the problem.

In summary, I like the Internet, even marvel at it. However, I do not trust large sections of it and I certainly would not be so grandiose as to thank God for it.

-- Irving (irvingf@myremarq.com), February 20, 2000.

It's a lot of fun, but it doesn't wash my car, and it doesn't grow crops for me. Might give me access to information which makes both those activities more productive, or it might delay me from getting those done while I get distracted by some other bit of delightful data. Truth is, it is getting into people's psyche now that information is the same as the thing itself. That is the Big Lie.

-- Okie Dan (brendan@theshop.net), February 20, 2000.

the Internet is just like the human tongue. it is simply a great tool, and can be used for good or for evil. your choice.

-- jocelyne slough (jonslough@tln.net), February 20, 2000.

dinasaur,

I thank God for creating nature in such a way that Man came about, in such a way, as to have the ability to create the internet.

A fascinating and scary thing, all at the same time.

Let's hope it continues to change and grow in such a way it benefits mankind rather than destroys it.

Only time will tell.....

By the way, GREAT responses, all!

-- Michael (michaelteever@buffalo.com), February 20, 2000.

We DO thank God for the Internet! It's been a fun super-educational wild ride since we first heard those ISP dial tones in August 1998. Caring for the dying 24/7 shut-in their home leaves a big socialization void. But our iMac 'n this Forum sure filled that black hole in a hurry! :-)

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), February 20, 2000.

I thank God for being alive at this time in history--I like technology and its effects overall so far, and it sure is interesting wondering what will happen next.

The internet is doing a good job at making connections between people, even when they're geographically isolated. It is a versatile source of some information too. I wonder if it doesn't most resemble a giant brain with connections everywhere. Not every neuron fires all the time but they all contribute. There is junk there as well as valuable information.

I'm not sure what can be done about the negative aspects of the internet such as porn, spamming, viruse-spreading, or hacking (and other "brain-tumors" like that).

If the internet is abused enough, maybe it will become more "controlled", and it could end up dying. Maybe it could be controlled somewhat through something like what forum moderators on this discussion board do? But somebody'd have to pay for it, of course. And standards would have to be drawn up (there's the rub--agreeing on standards).

The "moderator-work", some kind of revenue-generation to pay them, and the setting-of-standards would be the "chemotherapy". We get to see whether the patient survives or not, and with what residual effects, down the road.

-- S. Kohl (kohl@hcpd.com), February 20, 2000.

No,SHE(God) had nothing to do with it.It is amazing though,more interesting than reading the Paper or playing Bingo.This particular Forum is great.Except for some "foul"Language and Insults from the Advertisers here and there,I find Things quite civilized.I hear Complaints about Porn,what are You talking about?Are you talking about sexual Activety or Nudity shown,by adult Age,consenting Adults?You twisted up religious Types,with a 50 Percent Divorce Rate in this Country apparently cannot fathom the Idea,that Your soon to be Adult Kiddies benefit immensely from Viewing this Activety.This is a major Part of enjoyable,human Activety,only YOU with your twisted Mind,infected at an early Age with this religeous Virus sees Evil.The ONLY Porn I see, is on Television,namely the continued showing of Guns,associated Violence and Brutalities.

-- Dudley (Wake@up.People), February 20, 2000.

Now, Dudley. It's time for you to finish your homework (spelling and grammar), then off to bed.

-- Craig (sofpj@netscape.net), February 20, 2000.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr (pic), near Monterey, California

When I first went online over twelve years ago, I was involved in a Compuserve forum (World of Lotus, about Lotus products such as 1-2-3), in which the participants started one upping each other about how much they enjoyed the forum. Someone said "I love y'all more than kittens." Another said "I love y'all more than cookies and ice cream." I said this, and it's still true: "I love y'all more than books and TV!" In my case, that's really saying something.

I greatly appreciate the ready availability of "alternative" information. A heavy component of my self-image is "Internet user." I look forward to a future in which I can walk around and stay connected through my hologram-projected screen, galvanic skin response thought controlled cursor, cell modem combo. Then, I'll look forward to when they make it water proof so I can make it an intellectual enhancement to my daily swim.

No, it doesn't get the field plowed, but then, I don't have a field, yet. If I did, I think lazer leveled harrowing would go down a lot better with a lightweight solar powered (tinfoil?) hallogram Internet hat and a BAT style keyboard and touchpad mouse built into the handle of the harrow. Somebody, please, beat me to this invention, so I don't have to make it myself.

One of my favorite grade B movies, a cult classic, is Village of the Damned, in which all the women of child bearing age instantaneously become impregnated by some pulse from outer space. All of the children born approximately nine months later share the ability to know the thoughts of the others like themselves, even when they are separated. We've already become somewhat like them, except that we are not yet mobile.

Was it Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time (read some 35 years ago), that described a society of people all telepathically connected and controlled by a single brain? Or was that some Star Trek episode, or something? I know it goes way way back. We are organizing into a highly intelligent yet fragile new lifeform. Let's hope it's not like the The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), February 20, 2000.

Thank God ??? You might as well thank Al Gore.

Did God give us the Internet or could it be . . . Satan ?

-- kermit (colourmegreen@hotmail.com), February 20, 2000.

Dudley wrote:

"You twisted up religious Types,with a 50 Percent Divorce Rate in this Country..."

Interesting statistic, isn't it. I seem to recall reading that they took the number of marriages in a given year, and divided by the number of divorces in that year, and came up with a 2:1 ratio.

But how many marriages were there total (some existed prior to that year, and hadn't ended in divorce)? How many marriages lasted until one partner died (thus, how many widowers/widows were there, each representing a marriage-that-didn't-end-in-divorce, that year)? They had a lot of divorces compared to marriages that year--half as many in fact. But that is quite different from having shown that "one out of two marriages ends in divorce." I don't think they actually did that. Of course, it would be nice to see the research, and check my memory on this, if you happen to know the source of that statistic, oft quoted as it is.

Dudley also wrote: "The ONLY Porn I see, is on Television,namely the continued showing of Guns, associated Violence and Brutalities."

One thing about the use of porn is that it progresses, when freely indulged in--you have to keep looking for a new thrill, something more unusual, because the thing that thrilled you before eventually becomes passe.

Violating the norm gives that added thrill, don't you know. Can you see how porn could be related to violence, pedophilia, bestiality, and so on, because of that tendency to progress? If you've been indulging in porn long, you should be able to see that your tastes are not static. If you're young yet or otherwise new to porn, then see if your tastes don't progress, as time goes on, and consider whether you really want to do that to yourself. Because how far porn will take you is not something you will know until it's too late.

-- S. Kohl (kohl@hcpd.com), February 21, 2000.

I read a story once about a culture where people were very isolated. All their experiences were "virtual". They were afraid to interact with actual people because they had become so unaccostomed to it. That is my fear of the internet. We must not forget the importance of playing in the rain with our kids or digging in the dirt. The less time you spend doing something, the less important it becomes to you. The internet is a fantastic tool of information, however, like other tools (i.e. nuclear energy, guns) it also has the potential to destroy us. We must make our choices carefully.

-- grannyclampett (notress@pass.ing), February 21, 2000.