Technology is nowadays evolving at an unbelievable rate.
We are able to do things, today, that would have been impossible but a few years ago.

I am amazed by this growth. It excites me and it really is the expression of anything that there is of great and wonderful in the human mind.

But does the internet also impoverish art and knowledge?

Internet is the first utopia of mankind becoming reality: it is a totally free, self shaping and ever-morphing environment. Everyone counts as much as the other one and people really do have the power on the Internet.
It’s the world’s entire knowledge at your fingertips.
Think about it for a second. It’s like a miracle. Having everything there, RIGHT THERE for you.

Having such an effortless access to knowledge and art, though, could dangerously mean for you to feel like those things are of small value.

It’s just like what they tell you in marketing courses: a lower price doesn’t always mean more sales. You have to find your sweet spot: price your product too high, and no one will buy it because they think it’s a rip off, price it too low and you will convey the idea that it is of small value.

If you bought a book for 50$ you’re not gonna throw it away at the first boring part. You are motivated to keep at it, because you invested in it. It has a value for you because of what you spent on it. Be it mere money or effort to find it.

A lot of the music, games, books you get (illegally) for free on the internet have suffered this loss of percieved value. And that is way worse than any concern the RIAA may have.

You wanna kill a painter, a writer or a musician? Just watch, read or listen to their work once and trash it without even TRYING to understand it.

That is what I think is the only trap of the wonderful world wide web.

So, my message is the following:
Art and knowledge, for how cheap they may come, are always the most valuable things in this life. Their value is a spiritual value which calls for a payment in mental effort to understand and appreciate them.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 11th, 2006 at 12:39 pm and is filed under Technology, Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.