Beyond the Bounds of its Blueprint

The Earth’s population continues to grow and pervade the surface of the planet. As of November 2008, the total number of people living has reached more than six million individuals. The great need for survival now depends on the ability of world organizations and governments from 192 countries (based on United Nations members) to formulate humanitarian policies to ensure that life will continue to exist with peace and sufficient resources for everyone. State of the art technology has evolved through the decades and it’s never ending advancement and has greatly improved the lifestyle of people in different parts of the globe. The need of human race to communicate, interact and share vast knowledge and information has been provided by the internet. It linked countries from all continents and gives a student in a school cafeteria somewhere in the Philippines accessible and significant information he needed for his Marketing research.

Undoubtedly, the internet made planet Earth smaller than how it was perceived by its ancient philosophers and explorers. A person who has a computer or laptop can use the internet in a myriad of ways. One cannot fully comprehend the exceeding great scope this skillful contrivance can offer until he has explored and experience the expeditious results. The clever synergy functions as a hub for people who needed quick results. The internet’s humongous success was the unforeseen breakthrough which shook not just the United States, but it’s staggering impact, a mother’s need to create a mushroom soup recipe on a rainy Sunday morning to a nuclear physicist developing a prototype bomb as additional military weaponry, redirected the evolution of telecommunications.

The concept of connecting packets of information flowing through different wire channels emerged from the need of the US Military for continuous communication in the event of missile attacks. The idea of having a countrywide communication system birth the vision and confirmed it through the ARPA (Advanced Research Project Agency) as mandated by then president Dwight Eisenhower when the Soviet launched it first satellite, Sputnik I in 1957. Therefore, internet actually emanated from the need of substantial information to strengthen a nation’s defense against probable threats. Godsend Joseph Carl Robnett "Lick" Licklider developed the vision of incorporating a central library of information that would make problem solving as quick and as easy as possible provided an immediate access on data and an automated research system.

Nowadays, the internet has gone beyond proving its worth and value to the human race. However, the creation of accessible information for the public has its pros and cons. A simple snap shot of Jim Carrey strolling along the shores of the California coast with his lovely girlfriend Jenny McCarthy can go extremes with the paparazzi distributing the invaded private lives of people, who just happened to earn their living making movies in Hollywood, who just want some decent dinner in a hotel in Paris. Internet gives information, but it could also be the headquarters of pornography, illicit videos and abominable violence which pollutes the minds, not just of adults but most of all our young people. Group of guys in Starbucks could easily enter these avenues of harmful information, but sad to say, there has been no cure for this dilemma. The recent Mumbai attack actually questions the role of satellite information providing vivid images of target locations through, where else but the internet. The advanced technology makes it possible for a shepherd to search for its lost sheep, cow or cattle on the greenest farms in New Zealand. But it also poses an intrusive possibility that through the satellites hanging somewhere and orbiting the planet Earth, someone is being watched. And everyone can effortlessly see it though this world wide web.

The intention of internet’s creation was simply to protect people through communication. It certainly developed beyond the bounds of its blueprint. Hinged with its glorious success are hazards which are indisputably identified. But one idea can rise on how to redirect and revert it original essence. One might say it’s preposterously impossible, but someone needs to hope for the impossible. Maybe not totally eradicate the negatives, but at least be lessened and controlled. We not just owe it to its original creator, but to the future inhabitants. A world webbed with useful information to maintain consistent economic growth, peace and safety for everyone.