Text-Number: 0110E
Available: 26/08/1996
Category: Science, CultureNumber of characters: 1129
Author: Pam Blackstone
Written: 
Abbreviation (when applicable):
Title: Intellectual Diversity Not in Peril
Pending publication by/on:
Previous publication by/on: 
Printed in Victoria Times-Colonist, Nov. 1995
Copyright: Pam Blackstone
Diskussion/Letters to the Editor:

Pam Blackstone
Intellectual Diversity Not in Peril

In his latest book, The Lost World, author Michael Crichton disparages the Internet, claiming that the connectivity enabled by cyberspace will turn people into a race of like-thinking zombies, an event which will spell the end of our species. Sounding suspiciously like Harry Bruce, the modern-day Luddite who also used the Z-word recently in T-C pages, Crichton claims that intellectual diversity is disappearing faster than the world’s rainforests. “Cyberspace … means the end of innovation,” protests Crichton. “The idea that the whole world is wired together is mass death … everything will stop dead in its tracks. Everyone will think the same thing at the same time.”
Crichton might as well denounce the telephone as a mind control device. I hope he is writing with his tongue in his cheek, because he couldn’t be more wrong. He is condemning the very technology that is facilitating a hitherto unforeseen renaissance in human self-expression and communication. In fact, the global communication enabled by Internet newsgroups and electronic mail has led to a re-birth of the art of letter-writing. 
Email is the new form of social networking for some people; for others it’s a life-line, enabling them to contact family members during crises like the Japan earthquakes or the Oklahoma City bombing. Stephanie Caruana discovered its usefulness when Hurricane Luis hit the island of Dominica. “It was wonderful,” notes Stephanie, “to be able to email her to find out if she was okay.” 
For those who are immobile or isolated due to illness or disability, email is a way to maintain social contact or get help. Others use electronic mail to share ideas and experiences, exchange files, debate issues, pursue social change, stay in touch, or help others. Physical therapist Sue Eiszler discovered just how helpful people can be when she needed to locate a manufacturer of replacement parts for an electric table. Starting only with the knowledge that the broken parts were made in Sweden, Switzerland and England, she emailed various newsgroups in each country and requested help in finding the companies that manufactured the parts. Within a week, the parts were in her hands. “I was so impressed that strangers would help me out on such a weird request,” notes Sue. “I suspect that had I not used the Internet, we’d still be floundering around.”
Far from Crichton’s grim vision of hordes of mindless zombies entranced by glowing screens, the Internet is populated by many thousands of alert, intelligent, helpful and articulate people. Together they are forging new and exciting ways to communicate. For the first time in history, the world has a method of communication that is literally instantaneous, costs almost nothing, and is time-zone independent. Moreover, email is shattering the barriers traditionally imposed by geography and politics—making previously isolated regions of the world accessible and resulting in the beginning of a truly global grass-roots movement. Sure, the Internet has its negative aspects, but as Joan Richardt points out, “all technology is good and bad. Rather than seeing (it) wholly in negative terms, we have an opportunity to use its potential for human good and to explore new and unique ways of establishing relationships with each other.” 
Pam Blackstone is a Canadian Internet consultant who writes a weekly column about the Internet for the Victoria Times-Colonist newspaper. You can reach Pam by e-mail at pb@islandnet.com.
Copyright © 1995 Pam Blackstone. All rights reserved. Reprinted here with permission.