Friday, November 7, 2008

Information... it is everywhere

My modest experiment to see how long I could go without finding out who won the presidential election lasted only a few hours. All I wanted to do was see if it was even possible to avoid what would be historic news (one way or the other). After all, Obama was going to be the first African-American to either win OR lose a presidential election.

Well, I found out who won thanks to the scroll on ESPN. I was just trying to watch a little football.

I could have avoided finding out if I would have shut off all electronic devices. If there is one thing that defines our modern times it is the relentless flow of information. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it sure is something that makes modern society unique.

I recently read Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose. Even as recently as 200 years ago[1], It would take days for news to travel from the East Coast to Missouri. Nothing moved faster than the speed of horse. Now information is instant. The fact that I was unable to avoid the presidential information is not surprising but yet impressive.

[1] in the grand scheme of human events, 200 years is nothing.

3 comments:

marcus said...

I just started reading the same book, but I feel it will take me some time to get through it. How did you like it?

Chemgeek said...

I really enjoyed it. Mostly because I lived out West for a time. I was in Bozeman, MT which is a few miles away from the start of the Missouri. I was able to stand where Lewis and Clark stood. That made the book a bit more meaningful. For me, it was a page turner.

Anonymous said...

200 years? Try 700 years for WALLe to clean up our trash. Still not yet finish.