I am a native Hawaiian living on my volcano with my family and friends in the Christian calendar year of 1500 AD, ruled by my King and Queen. What do I know? I can look up at the sky and measure those changes, I can measure crop growth on different volcanoes, I can go fishing, lay on the beach and I am content. I have my gods, I do what my religious leaders tell me, and the gods stay happy and as content as I am. I know only of the volcanoes I live on, the ocean that surrounds me, the night sky, and legends. No one around me is any the wiser.
On the other hand, if I were born on the opposite side of Earth, say in Rome Itily in the same year of 1500 AD, ruled by my King and Queen and Pope and God. What do I know? Well, if my family has money, I can read, travel, and I have access to scholars. I might not know anymore as a rich Italian than a rich Hawaiian, but I have access to information and I know that there is a whole wide world out there that may be round.
As time passes and there are more and more people around me, I start to wonder how much they are helping me? Do I want to be the Hawaiian or the Roman. Or can I have the best of both worlds and be the Hawaiian with a data connection?
Since all that we will need in order to progress is communication (though we need other humans to survive) what will the next century bring in development?
I believe that this forum will help me with my writing in a couple of ways. Firstly, it will help me get the documents that I have prepared on this subject off of my computer which i think will help to better preserve them. Second, it will give me the incentive to make much needed spelling and grammar corrections to them. As I hope to present a bit more than 'fluff' - what an english teacher referred to writing that I think she would have preferred to call 'crap' - and something that people might enjoy reading versus being turned off by countless grammatical and spelling errors (as I often am when reading well thought but poorly written articles. Third, I would hope to get *thoughtful* feedback.
I think that my third incentive needs a bit definition when concerned with the loose term thoughtful. I don't expect Hubble, Dirak, Einstein, Newton, or Galileo to be reading my writing - as they're dead. Though, I doubt that Hawking, Tyson, or any other - still alive - great minds to read my work. What I would expect is that if you wish to give me feedback, you abide by a couple of 'rules', so please:
Last, the pictures on the slide show may or may not have been taken by me. Most were taken on family vacations and since we only had one (fairly) high end camera - the talented photographers that we all are - had to share. So I can't say which of these pictures I took and which I didn't (unless I was in it - and that is rare).
I think that my third incentive needs a bit definition when concerned with the loose term thoughtful. I don't expect Hubble, Dirak, Einstein, Newton, or Galileo to be reading my writing - as they're dead. Though, I doubt that Hawking, Tyson, or any other - still alive - great minds to read my work. What I would expect is that if you wish to give me feedback, you abide by a couple of 'rules', so please:
- Say more than five words - "You're an idiot" "Love your writing" - I DON'T CARE
- Unless you are pointing a unbiased and blunt untruth I have stated, take more than five minutes to think about what you are saying.
- Make your point and be done with it - don't keep reiterating a point you've already made, don't put incessant carriage returns (aka - 'enter') like a teenage chat room.
- Don't type everything big and bold, small and blending in with the background, or using all caps.
Last, the pictures on the slide show may or may not have been taken by me. Most were taken on family vacations and since we only had one (fairly) high end camera - the talented photographers that we all are - had to share. So I can't say which of these pictures I took and which I didn't (unless I was in it - and that is rare).