The Conception of the Internet & Mathew Shepard as a Case Study Rick Muller, Ph.D. Poudre Valley Health System Fort Collins, CO 80524
Introduction To many, the world seems to be fragmented, soulless, without center. For some, technology and the new media, whose most visible progeny is the Internet, seems to further that experience and belief. This is natural for those assuming a linear/rational reality. But, as we all know there are many ways to view experiences and some fall on the edges of linear reality. Is the Internet simply another business transaction technology, a communication medium or is it fundamentally different and as such transforming communications and reality simultaneously? The Internet is viewed by some as bringing the universe into their particular lives, the proverbial grain of sand that is their world, their home. The messaging or hype surrounding the Internet is overwhelming. If we believe this crush of electronic speak, we are in the midst of a world village, a breakthrough that will transform the new millennium. The potential may be there but the reality is not. More than 40 percent of the world’s population survives on less that two dollars a day, they are not part of the world village yet. Does this mean we are continuing colonization or as others have defined it “ghettoization”? These are interesting word choices. Colonize is defined as acquiring, extending or retaining dependencies or as a desire to conquer and possess space. First, a lot of our personal problems, mental inadequacies even parenting can be considered colonization since we are often acquiring, extending and retaining dependencies that we may or may not be aware of. As for conquering and possessing space, that is a notion limited to the rational world, for the electronic realm time and space do not exist. Is the electronic emergence a revolution, and evolution or a transformation? Are we faced with a full view or a fleeting glance of something greater or sinister? Is it really a matter of perspective or are our concerns mostly cultural indoctrination? I don’t believe this is a semantic exercise because the stakes are too high. Viewing the Internet from the mental/rational perspective, one sees it only as technology, another type of medium to further the corporate message. It is simply a tool of progress—something to further the human goal of making nature and others subservient to the most clever and smartest. This view fragments, separates, isolates, atomizes and leaves others behind. There are winners and losers. Colonization or Ghettoization. In this view electronic development and the Internet would be responsible for creating a fourth or even fifth world. This is accomplished by expanding difference by invoking a linear perspective thus generating a gulf and hierarchy unmatched in human history—the maximization of a tool mentality—the extreme, as seen in Dune or The Terminator. And there are many who are chanting this mantra, not as a choice but as the inevitable evolution of technology and communication. But, that approach is only one possibility and one reality among many. There are others, many others. What is often overlooked when significant upheaval occurs or fundamental
