This post was going to be more generic. It was going to be an overview of what topics were to be discussed here but then I read something that struck a cord with me and here is what I want to talk about, information. One of the biggest topic these days is how information is used and pass around. For those of you who aren't sure what I'm talking about (I hope that it is only a handful) I am referring to the Internet, the good old information superhighway, how we use it and how that interaction has completely changed the world we live in. I could go all the way back to early computers and a bunch of mid-20th century Department of Defense stuff but that is honestly another topic. I will add and edit this post as I attempt to obtain more knowledge on the subject over time but I want to get what do already know and my own thoughts down now.
Let's simplify the issue at hand for a bit. What's going on is that the ability to freely share ideas and creativity is seemingly clashing with the right for individuals to keep control of their personal info and their right to credit for their creative works. Everyone wants safety and security and to some that means the ability to remain anonymous (I'll get to that particular movement later). However in our desire to share our thoughts and creative works there are some people who wish to exploit that so to counter some method of accountability must be concocted.
This same issue exists in the real, physical world as well but with the Internet a different standard exists. Out in reality sharing information relies on a certain level of trust. That another person won't just start hurting me because of reasons like they don't want to upset societal norms, they are worried about losing in turn, or that an official of some kind is near by and will easily over power the situation are concerns that lie at the distrust of strangers. On the Internet those concerns go away.
In the early days of cyberspace people could express what ever they wanted and didn't have to worry about repercussions. If one really cared who the other person was and words were just words. Your online identity mention nothing in one's day to day life for the most part. Now of course there are those who can take things to seriously and try to track people down, it's happens. There are also viruses, spyware, worms, malware, and malicious spam to be concerned with but the majority of those can be fended off by just being smart (just like in real life).
However, as "the tubes" got wider and more data could passed between people the ability to share files and what would be dubbed social media appeared. Cable internet had come and tying up phone lines passed away. Once the smartphone came along things changed. Now is wasn't just that we could get in contact when ever we felt like, we were in contact all the time with everyone.
At this point I've kind of run out of steam. I'll cover some hardware history in a separate post at some point. I'll probably only lightly touch on things from before the 1970's and the go from there with the evolution of the microchip and the personal computer. I'm sure left some points unfinished but I was just rolling on a train of thought here and I'll shore things up when I come back to it. Comments are more than welcomed but keep things polite. Anything condescending or insulting will be removed.
