Q: We’re all the same… essentially. Agree? Disagree? And, what evidence do you have to support your answer?

A: We have more in common with one another than anything else in the entire Cosmos. The genetic differences between every living human is less than the difference between Chihuahuas and Huskies. We all have the same biological heritage and we all float on the same tiny ball in an unimaginably vast ocean of space. If you consider all of the various forms of matter and the possibilities of existence, you can begin to see just how much we truly have in common. One person may like lasagna with meat, one person may like it without meat, but every person that ever existed would eat a bowl of it if they were hungry.

The problem with wearing these right now is that they’re just not necessary. People are not so busy while they’re shopping or eating to need a phone at the ready, like a gunslinger with his pistol on his hip. I don’t think it’s bad to wear one…just silly. I mean, it just comes off as a wannabe status symbol when you wear it like jewelry.

Besides, (and here’s the geeky part) these earpieces don’t even DO anything right now! First of all, they require that you own an actual cellphone and that you keep it within twenty-or-so feet of you. And all they can do is answer the phone, turn the volume up and down, and activate voicemail (after you set it up in the cellphone). Whoopity-doo! I can do that myself.

Once they really do connect us like the Borg, connecting us seamlessly with millions of other creatures, and anyone not wearing one will look silly, then it’ll be perfectly normal have one of those glowing pieces of plastic stuck to your ear. Until then, this über geek is still going to hold out for the real gadgets.

Oh, and if you’re reading this thread you might as well check this out: Look at me! I’m a cyborg! )

Language is not an exclusively human invention, but from what we can tell, we have taken it to levels never seen on Earth. Our communication started with noises, which eventually became words. Then we started drawing pictures and assigning meaning to them, which is probably from where pictograms emerged. The Egyptians filled their pyramids with stories that speak to us from thousands of years in the past. Generations later, we began to understand the nature of words, sentences and grammar. Once we defined these devices, we were better able to understand and expand on them. It eventually became important for us to organize them in a way that was visually appealing, so titles and paragraph breaks became of great importance. Finally, we have invented computers and the Internet, which is taking text communication to places never before imagined.

The computer has its roots in all of humanity’s previous forms of textual communication. It is far superior in many aspects except, perhaps, one: permanence. Stone tablets that are thousands of years old can still be found, their words or symbols still legible. Drawings can be found everywhere the weather has not wiped it away. But, electricity is a constant in computer communication. The data may be stored on magnetic tapes, hard drives, or discs, but to view it requires a computer. The super-efficient duplication of information through computers (and the Internet), makes it possible to spread it quickly and easily, but unless a printed copy is made, a permanent copy of the text could hardly be considered tangible. This is probably why so many people are still not completely comfortable with purely electronic composing. We have all lost something to a power surge or other disruptive event. While it may be easier than ever to transfer and store information, it can hardly be said that a hard copy is not require or wanted.

Permanence aside, perhaps the most appealing aspect of current text technology is its dynamic nature. Visual organization has not always been a part of the writing process, but it certainly is now more than ever. Words and ideas are no longer the only issues one must consider when it comes to writing. Now we must be concerned with what we say, how we say it, and how it is presented. Ancient texts were written in a multitude of forms. But, none of them were written with black font on white background, on individual pages measuring eight inches by eleven, with one inch margins. They were composed with sticks on clay, or plant matter on plant leaves, or etchings in stone. But of all the articles I have ever read, regardless of when they were written, virtually all of them were in this modern format. These ancient texts are only available to us because someone transcribed to this format so they would be more readable to our 20^th and 21^st century minds.

In the past, the tools we used to compose usually determined what people wrote about. Unlike the efficient methods available through the computer, the older forms of writing employed a very deliberate process. Since these methods were so time-consuming, we have hardly any examples of trivial or inconsequential matters. Most people did not, for example, keep daily journals on clay tablets. As the technology increased, and we were able to make copies, duplication of important works suddenly became important. This is probably why the Christian Bible was the first mass-produced text. It was considered of enough importance that people wanted to reproduce it. These days, however, it is hard to really pin what is important enough to reproduce because we can do it so effortlessly.

As electronic text communication becomes more available, the flow of information will no doubt increase. With the advent of the Internet, the floodgates can be considered open. The words we think are important or relevant are increasingly being drowned out by the rest. The signal-to-noise ratio has increased, and will certainly continue to do so. Anyone who has searched for something on the Internet knows that every day it grows harder and harder to sift through all the “useless” data to find what it is you are looking for.

There is no doubt that the human species has been able to magnificent things with language and the printed word over the past few millennia. From primitive sounds to simple pictures, we added to our repertoire of communication forms. As our technology has increased, we have been able to communicate like never before. But, the technology and the language did not develop separately. They benefited reciprocally from one another, taking communication places our ancestors could never have dreamed, though I am sure they tried. Archaeologists can reveal to us what our ancestors left behind, but only because their medium has survived. Perhaps the ease of duplication in modern text will ensure its survival. Available to more people, the information will live on far beyond the physical aspects. But, it is unlikely that we will remember things that are hard to digest, so we must design our information to be memorable. The author and the web designer’s message will be lost in the sea of noise unless we focus the signal.

All living creatures store libraries of information in their genes,
But many beings are graced by the presence of a brain.
It slowly developed, layer upon layer,
modern primate upon
transitional mammal upon
ancient reptile upon
primordial stem.
In the shadowy, wrinkled valleys of the cerebral cortex,
An incredible bit of magic takes place,
When a collection of simple matter
Suddenly achieves consciousness.

This unsightly mass of soft gray tissue is the platform
From which all thinking creatures launch.
It is the facilitator of all we have created,
From spears to gods, from civilizations to rockets.

We may have been once been limited to sounds and words to relay our experiences,
But fortunately we have been given artists and authors to do that for us.
Of all the creations of humanity, writing is par excellence.
People from all over the world and throughout history reach out to us.
The voice of someone, perhaps long dead, speaks directly to us;
One of the greatest genuine magic tricks.

Our family, if we turn to the dusty, ancient pages of prehistory,
Began simply and humbly in the oceans of a cooling rock in some insignificant space.
Our self-replicating ancestors multiplied and diversified
Until there came a lucky group, eventually to become rat-like creatures who,
After avoiding the dinosaurs, ascended to the trees, and the primates were born.
Some of them grew tired of swinging in the forests, and climbed down again,
Freeing their hands, and expanding their minds.
With rapidly evolving abilities, they domesticated fire, and then each other.
Then they invented writing and other arts, war, and eventually medicine.
Our technology has given us the ability to write, sing, paint, kill and heal.

The Milky Way could be home to countless thinking beings,
I often wonder what it is they know, and what they can know.
In this vast, strange sea of cold, empty space, can their wisdom reach us?
Unfortunately, when we choose to venture spaceward,
Our arrival will be preceded by centuries of Earthling transmissions,
A few actively sent, but most passively broadcast by our media.
Fortunately, our messages will probably be indecipherable,
But, at the very least, they will recognize the signal as being of intelligent origin,
So we must continue to at least try, because it is the persistence of memory.

It could be that we have not been discovered,
And our xenophobia causes us to see lights in the sky.
Besides, if a race of alien beings did arrive one night,
What could we do to stop them?

Our predisposition to fear the unknown is something that
We share with our Earthling cousins, as part of our biology.
Our fears are usually unfounded, but that doesn’t mean they’re not real,
And a universal experience for intelligent Earthlings.
Our guilty consciences project our own backwardness upon us
And we assume that different necessarily means threatening.

Cousins Kepler and Newton, among many others, revealed to us
Laws that make a criminal out of no one.

Virtually endless bands of light can be devoted to communication.
Light’s spectrum is wider than our eyes can detect,
Radio is just an abysmally deep red, too dark for our eyes.

If an alien society discovered part of the spectrum,
Could they not understand them all?
There could be at this moment, a creature very different from us,
Peering into their night sky, looking at a point of light we call the Sun.
Does it occur to them that there may be another living being?
For them, is it such ridiculous conjecture?

If we are to communicate with beings from around the Cosmos,
We must be sure to listen rather than speak.
They are probably more advanced than we,
Acquired much more knowledge and infinitely much more wisdom.

Several times, we have almost destroyed ourselves,
Who is to say that we have indefinitely escaped that fate?
If self-destruction is the galactic norm, we may have no one to talk to
Except for one another. And that is something we do poorly.

Is it a sad thing that we put money into something called a Destroyer,
When at the same time we fund things like the Voyager probes.
The fruits of a battleship are sour and poisonous
But the search for life in not unfounded.