This is just sort of a stream of consciousness, so apologies if it doesn’t make
a lot of sense.
I still remember the first time I realized I was directly talking with someone
in another country. It was the mid 90s and I was a teenager, hooked on playing
MUDs. When most people in my high school could barely turn a computer on, I felt
like a wizard who knew about an entire secret world, and it was awesome. I was
playing, every day, with people from Scotland, Denmark, Italy, Australia, New
Zealand, and so many others I can’t even remember now.
And we talked. I learned so much about other cultures just by talking
directly to people. And I remember thinking, in my own young, idealistic naivete,
that if just everyone could be online, and could have these experiences, we
might actually achieve world peace in my lifetime. We could see that we are all
human bothers and sisters, separated only by artificially drawn borders. I
believed free information will result in the most educated population in human
history. And the Internet would bring the whole world a new age.
I look back on myself then and mourn the world that we could have had. Humans
apparently just aren’t ready for world peace and togetherness.