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1996-03-11
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[Prev|Next|Index] Thu, Feb 22, 1996 Colin Glassey
A Little Essay about the future
By Colin Glassey
There is a great deal that we, as a species, don't know.
Unfortunately, we are now at the point where we can wreck our
chances for all but a small number of people to survive on this
planet. The potentials for disasters are obvious. What is not
obvious is how we, as a species, are going to navigate through
the mine fields of potential civilization killers. I think it is
clear that all humans must come to a basic agreement about how to
live and survive on this world into the future. I believe that we
must all become a global entity. We must look beyond the needs of
personal lives, beyond the grasping for ourselves, and learn to
accept the needs of the world as a whole have claims of great
importance upon our lives and work.
The tragedy of the commons is well known to basic economics
students, but we are now living in a world where almost
everything that we took for granted is a commons: the air we
breath, the water we drink, the land we live on, the oceans from
which we came. Assuming normal human behavior, there is no
solution for the tragedy of the commons. This is why we must
change 'normal' human behavior if we want more than a few million
of us to survive.
Governments of states have no power over each other save force of
arms. No single country is going to rule over all other countries
in the near future. So the disputes that are going to become ever
more pressing as as the years continue cannot be resolved by the
governments of today. The same thing that happens today will
happen next year, the powerful countries will do what they wish,
the weak will protest without result. But we donÆt live in a
world of countries any longer! The air pollution from the east
coast of the USA reaches across the Atlantic to Ireland and
Portugal. The hole in the ozone layer does not play favorites
among countries. Global warming is not a phenomenon that respects
economic trade zones.
Only when we become citizens of the world, and the cutting down
of rain forests in Borneo for toothpicks means as much to every
person as is does to the people who live near the Borneo rain
forests, will we be on a path to global survival. The Internet is
the precursor for the world wide communications system that may
allow this transformation of human interests and human nature to
take place. By transcending governmental barriers, and the costs
of distance, and the problem of time, the Internet holds the
promise of letting people from all over the world come together
to see, hear, and learn about each other, about their planet.
Obviously governments are afraid of the Internet, and they have
good reason to be afraid. The Internet has the potential to make
most governments pointless. But we must not let governments stop
the Internet. We must not let governments dictate what is and is
not appropriate material to view and discuss.
I am not a fan of the sexual material that they wish to prevent
children from viewing, but if sexual material is banned today in
the USA, tomorrow China will be banning political expression, and
the day after Singapore will be banning news stories that it
thinks of as inappropriate for its citizens. Until all
governments are subsumed by the United Countries of the Planet
Earth, the United States should be leading the way towards the
future, not throwing up road blocks in its path.
Who should be allowed to define what constitutes indecent
material on the Internet? ShouldnÆt everyone be allowed to vote
on this? No matter which country they happen to live in? And
should the desires of one group of people be allowed to dictate
what another group of people can see or discuss? On the Internet,
you have the freedom to choice what to see or not to see, what to
read or not read. Is there a good reason to limit or constrain
any site on the Internet? If you don't like my site, don't come
visit. If you donÆt want your child to visit my site, subscribe
to a service that lets your child visit only places suitable for
children.
We must learn from each other, cooperate with each other, and
live on this planet as though itÆs the only one weÆve got, or we
will foul our nest and die, because we have nowhere else to go.
The Internet offers us some hope, weÆve got to let it grow, free
and unfettered.
Colin Glassey, San Jose, California
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[Twenty-Four Hours of Democracy]