The world we used to know is changing very first, making it a lot harder to remember where and what we used to be. The world is driven by innovative ideas, a product of human intelligence which is I consider to be limitless. All kind of development that used to be just an idea in someone's backyard has become reality. I wonder what stories we would tell our ancestors, the reaction on their faces when they hear of how easy things have become, the journey that used to take them a week has been reduced to just an hour.
They had to walk thousands of miles to study abroad or reach out to their loved ones, how they had to wait in line in the post office to send letters to their relatives, waiting weeks or months to get a reply. How would they feel, if I tell them, it takes less than 5 secs to reach out and get a reply from anyone across the world.
The most saddest of it all is how they had to depend on the information at hand to study difficult subjects or probably trekking for months before getting to the nearest library. Few that are lucky got the opportunity to study abroad but it wasn't cheap. When they hear of children getting home schooled without stepping out of their homes, having access to limitless information, I'm sure their jaws will drop.
My favourite of all inventions, I'm not sure of where to begin. Looking at how far we have gotten and how we have benefited from all kind of inventions, picking one of it as my favourite is like dipping my hands in a snow fall and looking for the whitest. For the sake of the prompt, let me pretend there is one that stands out among the various kind of inventions that we have.
What is the one invention that made the world a global village? A world without boarders, where anyone from anywhere could get access to any information about anything. Now is not even about information anymore, you can now trade currencies and buy items with virtual currency. An invention that changed the trajectory of dissemination of information and dethroning the conventional media as the primary source of information.
One of the greatest invention of mankind is internet, an innovative invention that has become a global phenomenon connecting everyone to different sources of information across the globe without the need of moving an inch. The capabilities of the internet is mind blowing due to its ability to make all kind of content available to anyone regardless of race or location. With the emergence of the internet it has reshape the trajectory of dissemination of information that used to be one of the tools used by government to control their citizens.
The dissemination of information is no longer centralised or depending on one entity. Any individual with internet can access the information of their choice without needing the approval from government. Before the emergence of the internet all we had was the almighty conventional media whose words was considered the voice of god.
Despite the potency of the conventional media in the dissemination of information, it is also subjected to censorship by government since it is a physical entity that can easily be cajoled or yield to the threat from the government. Notwithstanding, it became a medium that disseminate the wishes and desires of the government instead of serving the people's interest and the people had no choice but to believe since all we had was just one source of information.
Everything changed with the emergence of the internet we now have multi-source of information, which means the conventional media ability to control the narrative of a story has reduced significantly. The people have become the gatekeepers of their own story, choosing which information is news worthy or not without the interference of any governmental entity.
Definitely with internet comes freedom of information flowing through the internet like an unhinged storm but despite the merits of the internet it is not without its own disadvantages. The flow of information on internet is a bit decentralised in nature because it is not controlled by a single entity but the issue with that is, it is prone to abuse.
With this new trend comes the issue of all sort of individuals using the internet as a means of disseminating fake news, propaganda and conflict oriented information. Since the internet is less censored compared to the conventional media all kind of information could find there way to any individual across the world causing panic and chaos in the society.
Looking beyond it's disadvantages, it is the internet that gives us a bit of understanding of how true freedom of speech feels like, granting us the ability to share our opinion without the fear of coercion. Giving our silence a voice, in recent times, most movement against societal ills begin from the internet, it gave the usage our phones purpose. With just a smartphone and internet at hand, even a politician will tremble out of fear of being caught doing something unpleasant.
Beyond dissemination of information, what about the career opportunities it offers? Looking at how it has become a lot difficult to get a reasonable job, individuals with creative mindsets can now create a path of their own and earn significant income in the process. It changed the physical nature of almost everything, is there really anything that is not available on internet apart from oxygen?
This write-up was inspired by week 19 SciFi multiverse prompt "Science of innovation" in SciFi multiverse community.
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