Gift Horse .Taking Advantage of the Internet Look at the Internet from the perspective of the Anthropic Principle. If the forces of physics were not with us, we would not be here and neither would the Internet. The existences of life and of the Internet impose separate conditions upon physics. We happen to live in a world where those two sets of conditions overlap. How we regard that circumstance will determine how we exploit it.
I am suggesting that the Internet may be a gift from heaven. It may also be a gift horse. It is one of the means by which the cosmic spirit will subvert our material order. The other, more traditional means is the prophet. When you put a prophet together with the Internet you are dealing with an event of biblical proportions – namely the Second Coming. So I am further suggesting that the savvy Internet worker/investor should keep in mind that there is a ghost breathing down our necks. If we can’t beat it we had better be prepared to join it by becoming part of the cosmic fifth column.
There is probably a third ingredient – physics itself. Physics contains the seeds of its own subversion. This is the quantum. The quantum is the loophole in the otherwise rigid order of physics. As noted previously it is already pushing many thoughtful people into the arms of immaterialism. The bottom liners will ignore the quantum until it is shoved down their throats in the form of a quantum computer. And if I am not mistaken, our tardy Jesus will be there to help them swallow. It has already been said that you should not look the gift horse in the mouth.
Obviously no one wants to stand between the cosmos and its telos, but there may still be a role for mere mortals. Where can we line up for the fifth column? Just about anywhere. There is nothing wrong with children’s furniture. The Internet will be commercialized. There is Internet commerce and there is cosmic intercourse. There will be miscegenation, unless we are living in a Cartesian cosmos where mind and matter never meet. There is no business model for this, only sweat, charisma and vision. Oh yes, and a lot of creative networking.
.
- | Contents |
rev. 11/4/98