I firmly believe that personal freedom is directly linked to the ability to express opinions and have open communication. However, for a lot of people in the world they really haven’t had the opportunity to really express their opinions like us folks in the western world.
Even the western world has had its limitations on freedom of expression. Not really by having our hands tied, but there has been a limited number of options available.
One option was getting published, but not everything can get published. Since the cost of publishing is not cheap, someone else decided if the author opinion had any value before they would spend the money to have the opinion published. However, the same technology that has given us the web, has also made the cost of publication cheap. So a lot of folks are starting to self publish.
Another option was speaking in public. However, not everyone feels secure enough to march out into public, stand on the “soap box” and speak their mind. I can understand that fear. What if the listening crowd doesn’t like what you have to say? How will they react? Well, they might throw things at you. Or, if what you want to say is really different from what your society thinks is expectable, then you could find yourself in jail, or maybe labeled as being mentally unfit of society, and locked up for observation.
With the advent of modern technology, and the development of the digital age, we are starting to find more people expressing their opinions. A lot of the barriers to open speech are removed through the use of this technology. For a lot of people the gates of free expression have been thrown open. Now, anyone with a computer, the right software, and a connection can have their opinion soar through cyber space hoping to find some willing ears.The times are changing. Try to imagine events in history, and how the use of the web could have made a major impact.
So what does this have to do with the title anthroputer?
Well, as you read this introduction, I the author am hidden. Even if I place pictures of myself on the site, the true identity of who I am is masked by the media. Thus, as you explore this blog, you are in really just being allowed to peak through the lens of the computer.
The best that we will be able to hope for is understanding the human through the machine. This human through the machine I call an anthroputer.
An anthroputer has the freedom of expression, and also the ability to mask who they are. On one side, this allows people to say things that they wouldn’t in more “exposed” forums. Which can be good, because it allows a greater diversity of opinion that we can use to make our lives better. However, it also gives people a forum to be “validated” for something that might not be all that good.
One thing that anthroputers need to learn is to think through the information that’s on the web. So much information is now available, we have to learn how to judge the worth of this information.
That’s the new challenge, and that’s one of my focuses on this blog. I have spent most of my life learning to train my mind, and seek out valuable information and apply to my life. Learning to identify what is good information and what is junk is the first step to using the web responsibly. I hope that my “two cents worth” will offer some value to this growth.
Have fun and enjoy!
