As we set about integrating broadband and internet resources into our culture, it is critical to recognize seemingly contradictory issues inherent in the process. On the one hand, we are tempted to see mediaspace as a separate universe, one subject to different rules of physics and conduct from meatspace. On the other hand, we also bring to the undertaking our existing habits in physics and conduct. Perhaps it is useful to understand that we are evolving altogether NEW space, NEW geography. We conjured the amorphous omnipotential cloud of mediaspace, and we are know causing it to differentiate and coalesce into actualities. So, will we bring ALL of our cultural baggage into these news spaces, or might we actually step back, reflect and set about harvesting the remarkable transformative potential of a global nervous system making possible a degree of inteconnectedness and communication our ancestors could only imagine as telepathy and astral projection? The fundamental gift of this nervous system is to remove distance as an insuperable cause of mis-communication, mis-understanding and ignorance of actualities and events. So mediaspace is at once an altogether new geography as well as an extension of our ancestor's earth. |
Broadband Geography - |