A MIRROR FOR THE BRAIN
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The Internet is quite like the human brain. Both are tasked with organizing, sorting, and making sense of the vast assortment of information we so value as a race; both are constantly growing and changing; and, if we’re honest, both could probably be applied more efficiently than we currently use them. This comparison lends itself to an interesting connection: how strange that the brain, a “web” in itself, would seek out and take pleasure in a network designed so similarly to its own inner workings. On some level, surfing the Internet is like letting the brain look at an oddly digital mirror-image of itself, riddled with cat videos and food blogs though it may be. However—-like the human brain—-the Internet was not a complex, web-like connection of thoughts and ideas and information the moment it arrived on Earth. Everything started somewhere, and for the Internet, “somewhere” was a block of green text vaguely reminiscent of the Matrix.
The very first act accomplished via the Internet was surprisingly simple, considering the tidal wave of digital appreciation and admiration that it has since triggered: on October 29, 1969, the letters LO were sent by Leonard Kleinrock from a computer at UCLA all the way to a computer in Stanford. However, the very first act accomplished via the Internet was also the very first failure of the Internet, considering the system crashed before the intended message, “login”, could be completed. Of course the story does not end there—or perhaps I would be sending you this sentence two letters at a time. Unwavering, work on this juvenile and fascinating entity continued; connections were being made, information put into order, the hazy mirror-image of our current Internet beginning to come into focus. That Matrix-like green block of text was every day becoming more like the widespread and powerful entity we know today. And yet, if it were not for the innovative thoughtfulness of one Tim Burners-Lee—-the nature of which the Internet now inspires and promotes—-that hazy mirror-image may have come into focus entirely differently, leaving us with an almost-unrecognizable version of our Internet. In March 1989, Burners-Lee wrote Information Management: A Proposal, where he argued for a different organization of the Internet—-“linking” information together, instead of the current hierarchical configuration that was apparently both inefficient and frustrating. Needless to say, the idea was a success, and went on to support the growth of further ideas: due to the fact that our Internet is now connected, strung together like a web, ideas spread like wildfire. For example:
The very first act accomplished via the Internet was surprisingly simple, considering the tidal wave of digital appreciation and admiration that it has since triggered: on October 29, 1969, the letters LO were sent by Leonard Kleinrock from a computer at UCLA all the way to a computer in Stanford. However, the very first act accomplished via the Internet was also the very first failure of the Internet, considering the system crashed before the intended message, “login”, could be completed. Of course the story does not end there—or perhaps I would be sending you this sentence two letters at a time. Unwavering, work on this juvenile and fascinating entity continued; connections were being made, information put into order, the hazy mirror-image of our current Internet beginning to come into focus. That Matrix-like green block of text was every day becoming more like the widespread and powerful entity we know today. And yet, if it were not for the innovative thoughtfulness of one Tim Burners-Lee—-the nature of which the Internet now inspires and promotes—-that hazy mirror-image may have come into focus entirely differently, leaving us with an almost-unrecognizable version of our Internet. In March 1989, Burners-Lee wrote Information Management: A Proposal, where he argued for a different organization of the Internet—-“linking” information together, instead of the current hierarchical configuration that was apparently both inefficient and frustrating. Needless to say, the idea was a success, and went on to support the growth of further ideas: due to the fact that our Internet is now connected, strung together like a web, ideas spread like wildfire. For example:
Glad you're back.
Now, we have taken a quick look at the beginnings of the Internet; what about that which is yet to come?
The future of the Internet looks fairly bright. Actually—-when one considers how far the Internet has come in so short a time, how an entire generation has adopted the Internet as a chief means of powerful and influential communication, and how our natural human desire for connection and knowledge keeps us logging on—-the future of the Internet is blindingly bright. It is likely that the Internet will continue to grow, feeding off ideas that it itself propagates; new websites will always be cropping up, sporting new trends, means of communication, knowledge, facts. Our love of speed and ease of access will inspire us to invent new ways of accessing the Internet, new ways of making it mobile and further engaging it in our lives, and certainly new ways to interact with it and rain our brilliance on an unsuspecting world. It is almost guaranteed that someday, out of this tangle of interconnected selfies and pop-culture, there will come a new idea that will push the boundaries of our Internet—and, perhaps, our world—beyond our imagination.
So, in the end, it’s relatively safe to say that the Internet is like the human brain. It started out small and blossomed into something amazing, it is a web of useful (and sometimes not-so-useful) information—-and, while we may not know exactly what it’s going to do next, the promises of the past guarantee its future will be groundbreaking.
Sources:
Vsauce. “The Web is Not the Net.” Youtube. February 4, 2015. May 8, 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scWj1BMRHUA>
Now, we have taken a quick look at the beginnings of the Internet; what about that which is yet to come?
The future of the Internet looks fairly bright. Actually—-when one considers how far the Internet has come in so short a time, how an entire generation has adopted the Internet as a chief means of powerful and influential communication, and how our natural human desire for connection and knowledge keeps us logging on—-the future of the Internet is blindingly bright. It is likely that the Internet will continue to grow, feeding off ideas that it itself propagates; new websites will always be cropping up, sporting new trends, means of communication, knowledge, facts. Our love of speed and ease of access will inspire us to invent new ways of accessing the Internet, new ways of making it mobile and further engaging it in our lives, and certainly new ways to interact with it and rain our brilliance on an unsuspecting world. It is almost guaranteed that someday, out of this tangle of interconnected selfies and pop-culture, there will come a new idea that will push the boundaries of our Internet—and, perhaps, our world—beyond our imagination.
So, in the end, it’s relatively safe to say that the Internet is like the human brain. It started out small and blossomed into something amazing, it is a web of useful (and sometimes not-so-useful) information—-and, while we may not know exactly what it’s going to do next, the promises of the past guarantee its future will be groundbreaking.
Sources:
Vsauce. “The Web is Not the Net.” Youtube. February 4, 2015. May 8, 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scWj1BMRHUA>