One of my favorite works of science fiction, "October The First Is Too Late," was written by British Astronomer Fred Hoyle. The premise of the book is that a transmission of energy plays havoc with time. England is in the 60's but WWI is still
raging in western Europe. Greece is in the golden age of Pericles,
America some thousands of years in the future; while Russia & Asia
are a glass-like plain, its surface fused together by the burnt-out sun
of a far distant future. I recently presented a social media workshop to tech newbies. These were educated, professional people. Some of them did not know what an app is, or use a smartphone, or even understand that the World Wide Web is made up of coded pages. I live in 2012, and they live in 1990. Maybe even earlier.
At the end of Hoyle's novel, the two main protagonists realize that time is about to re-stabilize. One of them stays in the future and the other elects to go back to his past. My memory of what my life was like pre-Internet is rapidly fading. I couldn't go back even if I wanted to.
I stay in my crowd sourced world, where a universe of information, data, and people awaits, just one click away.
I no longer remember a time when I was sheltered and closed off.
It's both good and bad.
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