Yo! Rick:
Monday May 26 1997 23:56, Rick Wilson wrote to Bill Cheek:
 BC>> So while I readily acknowledge your freedom to not need the
 BC>> resources of the Internet, I still don't understand why not.  I'm
 BC>> not asking to put you on the spot, either; just saying that I don't
 BC>> understand how you can not need it.
 RW> PLEASE explain to me WHY THE HELL we NEED the internet???
 RW> I'm DYING to know.
I couldn't possibly speak for you.....for many reasons.  Who is this "we"?
 RW> We've survived a good many years WITHOUT the internet, before it
 RW> became the "in" thing...so I'm curious as to why we NEED it.
Society survived without copiers, computers, vacuum cleaners, and even 
electricity for many years.  
If you can't see the ramifications and implications of the Internet, pretty 
much on your own, there's no way I can convince you....and I'm not about to 
rise to the bait to start or perpetrate a peeing contest over it.
One clue may be in order, though.  You participate in FidoNet, apparently by 
choice and interest; not by force.  Well....FidoNet is a grain of sand on the 
beach.  The Internet is the beach.
The idea is connectivity..... a social "nervous system", the predecessors of 
which were paths, lanes, and trails through the forest; later roadways; 
postal mail, followed by the Transcontinental Railroad; the Interstate 
Highway system; the telegraph, telephone, radio & TV; etc.
The Internet is a greater concept still....though the word can be dropped for 
all I care....and maybe should because it will evolve to a higher plane than 
the Internet was ever conceived when it was created.  The human body evolved 
to the highest lifeform on this planet....and why?  Intelligence is one 
reason, but that intelligence would be worthless without the nervous system 
to support it.  The Internet has the potential to become another trunk of 
human society's nervous system.  It does not replace the plane, train, and 
automobile; nor radio, TV, and the telephone.
In fact, the Internet does not replace anything.....not like copiers replaced 
carbon paper.  The Internet kind of glues everything together and adds 
something.
But need it?
Society didn't "need" planes, trains, and automobiles for a time.  If you 
don't need it, then that's your choice and I wouldn't create an issue over it 
in any vain attempt to change your mind.  People didn't want to give up their 
horses and buggies when the automobile became King....and the Amish still 
don't.
I guess it all depends on your frame of reference...........  It is not an 
absolute value.  Not yet anyway.
However......IF *radio* is your interest (and passion?), you will find a 
thousand times more information about it, not to mention ten-thousand times 
more software and hardware support for radio on the Internet than in FidoNet 
and the magazines.
The Internet is a medium....a highway; that's all.  If your choice is to 
stick to the backroads.......that's fine.  You will fall behind, though.  
Which is fine, too, of course.
Everything's fine.  Except Komrad Klintax and the government..........
Bill Cheek ~ E-mail: bcheek@san.rr.com
Windows 95 Juggernaut Team ~ Microsoft MVP
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