Some meandering thoughts about nothing special

I have a dream. A dream where everyone is connected by various equal sized pipes such that at any given time amount of information that can flow between any two entities is equal, restricted only by the enthusiasm of the entities to use the pipe. Noone is preferred over anybody when it comes to information access. Everyone has equal access to the pertinent information.

Problems of the world stemmed from unequal access to information. Information is power. Individuals and organizations want power. Control of an entity to information is directly proportional to the power and influence the entity currently has. Power and influence do not start to snowball until an entity has a critical amount of information.

In hindu society, women didn't have access to various religious texts. This was after the ancient times and before the modern era. Such restriction resulted their having to follow various rites that were especially formulated to keep them out of other worldly affairs thus reducing their influence in those worldly affairs. This resulted in reduction in their access to the information. As information access has now become relatively easier, hindu women are fighting for their right of equal access.

Geographical and temporal expanse makes equal information access a daunting task that everybody likes to not heed to, of course except when talking about 'digital divide'. But 'digital divide' is simply a very tiny part of the bigger issue. According to politically correct definition of the digital divide, it acts over the concept of national and economic boundaries. Whereas issue of access to information is an micro-sized issue in terms of both spatial and temporal boundaries.

Inside a family, a husband buys a gift to his ex-girlfriend without his wife knowing where the money from tax return went. That is lack of information access from wife's point of view. There is a fight between a nymphomaniac wife and a cheating husband that the neighbor is unaware of. A teenage daughter is sleeping with a gangster that parents' are unknown about.

A new library is opened in one county that another county is unaware of. A country is researching about developing a new nuclear weapon that rest of the world do not know anything about. There are simply too many broken or blocked information pipes that hinder the proper flow of information both ways. I have a dream of fixing those pipes so that everyone will have equal access to the information.

A war waged ten years ago results one of the cronies of the president becoming a billionaire. Citizens of the country, who rallied behind the president during the wartime, are unaware of the multi-billion dollar defense contract granted to the friend of the president without public notice. This is information spanning temporal boundary.

There are questions of privacy. There are questions of familial and national security. There are questions of personal security itself at the forefront. But by having proper protocol in place in the pipes that guide the flow of information, a proper information network can be designed. Whatever information is needed and whenever it is needed, it can be garnered without the current restriction imposed by access to the pipes themselves. Restrictions will only be imposed by the willingness of the concerned party.

One day, we will have a world where everyone will be connected by equal sized pipes with each other, every house, every town, every village, every country, and the entire world will be connected. Then we will not have to organize conferences on 'digital divide'. We will then live happily ever after.

posted by dipeshb @ 1:50 PM