The Advent of the Information Age
As I was growing up, I remember being fascinated by the sheer power and potential of technology. I clearly remember the first time I visited Wikipedia; I was fascinated by the amount of content that I could access, almost any historical document or event, the lives and work of almost every famous personality, and detailed information on many scientific and technical topics. This rivaled the collections of the largest libraries in the world, and all of this information was literally available at my fingertips.
It is so empowering to be living right at the dawn of the Information Age, a time when humanity has created a system to share the sum of human knowledge across the world, at no cost to anyone with an internet connection. However, this explosion of technology is not just limited to the spread of already-existing information; the Internet, in fact, acts as a catalyst to the further discoveries and inventions. Anyone with an Internet connection can collaborate on projects together, publish his or her own articles, and learn from people halfway across the world. The Internet is the printing press of the 21st century; it allows a much quicker rate of sharing of knowledge, and the individual is capable of making their work be known, depending less on publishers. This is similar to the changes brought about by the printing press in the 1400’s.
The time we are living in now, the early 21st century, is the current pinnacle of the sum of human knowledge. We know now more than our ancestors could ever dream of knowing. Due to the Internet, human knowledge is growing at an almost exponential rate, and we now understand many aspects of the natural world that have remained a mystery to us in the past.
What is more exciting is that this “Information Age” started just about 40 years ago, and it is astounding to consider the progress we made in these short years, and consider all the progress that will be made in centuries to come. It is very interesting to think where our successors will be; how they will use our technology, and how they will modify it. They will expand on our foundations; they will enhance and improve it. The future is bright; bright for not only our successors, but their successors too, and for generations to come.
Nizar
Shayan Pirani
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