A worldwide network – a pulsing nerve-cell transmitting its message to anybody, anywhere, anytime. A channel that automatically, intuitively knows how and where to transmit data – no matter who requested it and where they are, as long as they haven’t been disconnected.
It is not alive, and yet it is strangely sentient, and remarkably resilient. And it grows as we speak.
It was born in the mind of technicians, and live on by the work of engineers and programmers who love and cherish and nurture it. It has been proclaimed dead several times over, but it just refuses to care. It is here to stay. And so it stays.
It’s hard to believe, even if one remembers, that there was a time without computers and internet connectivity. It just sort of fades out of one’s memory after a while of being almost constantly connected. It is so practical that it is hard not to develop an instant addiction. The network subtly grabs hold of one’s brain and refuses to let go. It changes one’s patterns of thoughts and one’s reaction to things. It provides answers so that you don’t have to think as much or as hard as you did before… But it also enables you to ask questions more loudly and reach a wider audience than was thought possible a few decades ago.
It makes you addicted. It makes you co-dependent. It makes you feel helpless without it. Because after a short while, you truly are.
It is as if it has a mind of its own, even if we know that it isn’t (yet) technically possible. The only mind is the mind of those who make it, who write the code for websites and servers that rely on it and serve the content. And those are mere mortals like ourselves who make flawed decisions and sometimes write flawed code. But the network doesn’t care. It will disseminate whatever it is presented with to whomever requested it, by any means available to it. It is impartial. It just exists.
If a machine could ever come to life by itself, this would be the best bet at it. Constantly exposed to all the information available to us, and able to browse through it in no time, this network would surely be the first to crack the code if it was possible. Good thing that won’t happen. I doubt any of us could come to terms with the consequences.
But it is the case that logic fails to describe it. It can describe how it is built, technically, to a certain extent, but not quite what it does. How it is so much greater than the sum of its parts. How it enables so much growth, and so many changes, and has caused so much else to perish – left so many other things dead or abandoned in its wake. How its presence has changed the world, and continues to do so. Some for better and some for worse. Nobody is untouched by it entirely.
It was designed originally to be able to withstand the potential nuclear Holocaust that was feared during the Cold War. That is why it’s designed to automatically pick the servers it needs to transmit information – that is why it works so seamlessly, and with so little interference. As long as two single servers are buzzing and connected, it will remain. In essence, it is as near to indestructible as it is possible for us to make anything. It was built to be a survivor. To be a safe haven. One might almost fear that it was built to survive us, and to store the total sum of our knowledge and experience should the worst happen.
It is a wondrous creation in any case. And it enables so many other wondrous things that rely on it. The web: The greatest library of human knowledge ever created; created by and for the users.
Where will this creature take us in the future? How far can it take us? Or how far can we make it take us? Is there a final destination; is there a limit to how much the network can create or serve? Will the continuous spread of ideas and thoughts continue to propel development at an exponential rate, as we have seen recently? Only time will tell. But being the brainchild of the curious, exploratory creatures that we are; I don’t think it will ever be allowed to grind to a halt. Not as long as there are programmers left in this world. Not unless the world was turned upside down entirely.
Isn’t it strange that we can create something that to such an extent transcends ourselves and our own lives, and spans the globe and encompasses everyone and everything – at least potentially? That is actually the single most encouraging thought I can think of. Despite every seeming movement to the contrary, the existence of the internet and the web, and the continuous development of both, shows that human beings do indeed have a genuine desire to share knowledge, to connect with each other, and to drive development to the mutual benefit of all. No matter what we may say or do at times, the network stands as a reminder of what visions we have, and how easy they would actually be to achieve if we decided to make the effort…
It is a work of genius. Human genius. And it lives through our continuous endeavors, it grows and has become so integral to our existence that its “life” is practically a prerequisite for the life of our society.
I cannot imagine that we should ever create anything of equal potential. But perhaps those words were said before, when the steam engine was created, or the first trains or planes, or the assembly line? In that case we can expect even greater achievements. That makes me wonder why people are so afraid of technology. Isn’t it amazing to them what we are capable of making? What it has enabled us to do? What it might still make possible for us?
And all the while, the servers are humming quietly in the background while the network serves you these words. Just like that.