| Before we get to what is the greatest | | | | understood each other. This informal |
| invention in the history of the world, we | | | | gathering of thinkers birthedone of the most |
| should visit Germany in 1447. In that time, | | | | significant early cultures of the Western |
| a goldsmith and printer, Johannes Gutenberg, | | | | World. |
| created the Gutenberg printing press. This | | | | |
| technology spread like wildfire throughout | | | | Because there are so many contributors to the |
| Europe and then on to the rest of the world. | | | | World Wide Web, neither governments nor |
| | | | corporations nor media organizations have |
| The impact of it is comparable to the | | | | much control over it. Blogging, especially, |
| invention of the alphabet and the development | | | | has evolved to a place where absolute candor |
| of writing. | | | | is possible. In addition, writers are free |
| | | | to wax eloquent in their pdf or exe files |
| Prior to the printing of books on a massive | | | | without waiting for somebody to approve the |
| scale, books were painstakingly copied. This | | | | marketability of their ideas. Discussion |
| resulted in both fewer books and also more | | | | groups for everything under the sun exist. |
| inaccurate books, because the copying of the | | | | Then there are the social networking |
| original changed from one version to the | | | | websites, like You Tube and others, where all |
| next. In addition, since in Europe, Latin | | | | kinds of opinions are expressed through |
| was the language of scholars, only a small | | | | videos. Never in the history of humanity has |
| population could even read them. When books | | | | it been possible for the common man or woman |
| were printed, popular European vernaculars | | | | to speak their mind to so many people in |
| were used to communicate to a wider audience. | | | | complete freedom. |
| | | | |
| Our next evolutionary leap was creating a | | | | Another face of the World Wide Web is like |
| medium of instant publication and a worldwide | | | | The Great Books of the Western World series. |
| audience. This is the World Wide Web. | | | | |
| | | | The quintessence of the value of that series |
| It may be as significant a leap in the | | | | has been captured by the original associate |
| consciousness of humankind as was Albert | | | | editor, the late Mortimer Adler. |
| Einstein's revolutionary reinterpretation of | | | | |
| the Universe. Despite the brilliance of | | | | He said that to read them was to be involved |
| Isaac Newton's work, the new theory of the | | | | in a great conversation because it was like |
| Universe changed the consciousness of | | | | |
| humankind forever. | | | | "authors sitting around a table in the same |
| | | | room--totally oblivious to the circumstances |
| The World Wide Web may very well be the | | | | of their own time, place and diversity of |
| greatest invention in history. Tim | | | | tongues--confronting each other in agreement, |
| Berners-Lee has invented something that | | | | disagreement or otherwise differing about |
| reminds one of a multifaceted diamond. When | | | | what they have to say on the subject. The |
| you look at each face, you discover a new | | | | sessions of the conference thus imagined |
| reality. | | | | would take many days, months, perhaps even |
| | | | years, for it would cover the whole range of |
| One face of the World Wide Web is like The | | | | ideas and issues that are the objects and |
| Glass Bead Game. | | | | concerns of human understanding, always and |
| | | | everywhere." |
| In his Nobel Prize winning novel, Magister | | | | |
| Ludi, The Glass Bead Game, Hermann Hesse | | | | As you surf from one website to another, from |
| defined the nature of knowledge and | | | | one discussion board to another, or as you |
| intelligence in a beautiful metaphor. He | | | | communicate instantly by email, is this not |
| described it as a game where pieces were | | | | like a great conversation that informs your |
| played on a board. | | | | mind and feeds your soul? |
| | | | |
| "The Glass Bead Game is a mode of playing | | | | Finally, another face of the World Wide Web |
| with the total contents and values of our | | | | is like A Global Brain. |
| culture. All the insights, noble thoughts | | | | |
| and works of art that the human race has | | | | Philosophers from Plato to Aristotle, from |
| produced in its creative eras, all that | | | | Thomas Aquinas to Herbert Spencer have always |
| subsequent periods of scholarly study have | | | | considered knowledge to be a unity, where |
| reduced to concept and converted into | | | | everything is potentially connectable to |
| intellectual values, the Glass Bead Game | | | | everything else. The human brain is a |
| player plays like an organist on an organ." | | | | powerhouse of networks of infinite |
| | | | complexity, where every neuron has the |
| Like the Glass Bead Game, the World Wide Web | | | | potentiality to connect with every other. |
| ranges over the entire intellectual cosmos. | | | | Similarly, knowledge itself, as described by |
| | | | writer James Burke, is "a gigantic and |
| Another face of the World Wide Web is like | | | | ever-growing sphere in space and time, made |
| the marketplace of Ancient Athens. | | | | up of millions of interconnecting, |
| | | | crisscrossing pathways." |
| Here democracy evolved in its purest state. | | | | |
| People talked to each other, shared | | | | Knowledge has never been so linked together |
| information, challenged points-of-view, and | | | | as it is now on the World Wide Web. |