Ode to the Internet

In my blogs I like to highlight things we take too easily for granted. I like to stand in awe for so many achievements of science and technology, even if these have become daily commodities. Today is a good day to stand in awe for the Internet.

The fourth of April, the Roman Catholic church celebrates Isidore of Sevilla, who is the patron saint of the Internet, the computer users and the programmers. The reason is that Saint Isidore created his “Etymologiae” (Origins of words) a complete encyclopaedia of all knowledge of his time. This encyclopaedia reminds us very much of Wikipedia and the entire Internet, reason why Saint Isidore was appointed patron saint of something that only came up when the saints were -unfairly- being consigned to oblivion.

As we all like to complain, we often point out the dangers of the Internet: the spam, the numerous security threats, the attacks on our privacy as well as the risk of addiction and alienation from the people who surround us. Another major remaining problem with the Internet is the digital divide. The Internet is still not available everywhere at an acceptable data rate.

And yet we forget so quickly how the world looked like before the Internet. You had to write letters by hand and bring them to a post office. Later, you got the luxury you could push it through a fax machine. You had to call a friend or walk to a library to look up everything you didn’t know. Today’s students have immediate access to all world information through the Internet. (And yet they have to discover painfully that information is no knowledge yet. You still need time and patience to acquire knowledge.)

Another advantage we tend to forget is that we can now quickly send messages to several people at the same time without disrupting them in their daily activities. This was not possible 40 years ago. It has now become much more easy to cooperate from a distance, which allows various associations and groups of common interest to work together. The Internet, including the social media services, offers you a fast and cheap way to make yourself known and to express your opinion. Considering the flood of opinions, you may get the impression your opinion doesn't matter much. But it does! The Internet is a bad thing for dictators and a good thing for the freedom of speech.

And much more Internet is yet  to come! Not only will we connect the most remote places on earth, also cars, ships, trains and planes will be connected. Moreover, we will move to an Internet of Things.

On Saint Isidore’s web site, you can find the following prayer, which I could recommend. I pray it this 4th of April to safeguard my soul J

“we beseech Thee, that, through the intercession of Saint Isidore, bishop and doctor, during our journeys through the internet we will direct our hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to Thee and treat with charity and patience all those souls whom we encounter.”

See my earlier blog Ode to Joy 2.0 , in which I highlight more specifically the pleasures and inconveniences of social media. 

Picture taken in Seville Cathedral.