Cyber Trek

Although I have not read Heidegger for a long time, I do recall one of his themes being the impact of technology on the human soul and culture. Amazingly prescient. When my laptop fails or when I lose my cellphone connection, I realize how much of a Six Million Dollar Man I have become, as have we all. A race of cyborgs, really. Even the flash mobs of feral Black yoofs (aka Obama's Children) use their wireless phones to arrange attacks.

The internet --one of the many things we have to thank Al Gore for-- has given me access to worlds I would otherwise have been entirely ignorant of. A mixed blessing. My wanderings have brought me into virtual contact with both Vegans of Color and the NorthWest White Republic, the inner sanctum of Mormon initiation rituals and the classics and details of Muslim sharia. I have easy access both to The Great Literature of the World and porn. I get to see and hear the (mostly deeply boring, sometimes astonishing) day-to-day details of transgenders transitioning and watch pirated movies and TV for free. With email, I can't remember the last time I actually wrote someone a letter or sent them a card through the post.

It has been very enlightening.  With access to all sorts of information that my moral and intellectual superiors in the media don't want me to know, I have become far more conservative about even the most taboo of subjects  than I would ever have imagined.

And I have also wasted huge amounts of time. But that is a character flaw of long standing, for which new technology has only given me different and more efficient means.