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T he internet, the world wide data connection that has caught on like a wild
fire sweeping through a parched California forest, has wide ranging implications
on our world economy. Locally, we have witnessed staggering swings of fortune in
more “dot-com” firms than any other form of business in American history. The
old adage of that “American Dream” - starting a business in the garage to see it
one day be listed on the stock exchange is truer now than at any other time in
our short history as well. While many still feel that the internet is simply a
“fad” that will fade out as consumers tire of on-line shopping, most are
resigned to the fact that the computer age is finally found a foothold into the
masses – a true consumer product as inseparable in the modern household as the
television and telephone. The fact that it isn’t being called the “telenet” may
be more a matter of poor timing than a marketing gaffe.
As the data-stream
(“bandwidth” in internet parlance) becomes more efficient – read that as “fast,”
other uses of the internet will boom. No longer will the internet be just for
buying and selling merchandise, chatting with friends and family, or gaining
insight into the latest sexual technique, but will become a truly real-time and
practical “multi-media” tool. Video data, currently suited only for the
occasional voyeuristic views with choppy, grainy images reminiscent of our
parents/grandparents 8mm movies, will one day (soon, I predict) become a window
to the world. The video phone – a product most of us in my age group thought
would have become reality long before now - will finally become commonplace.
With video, audio and other input devices at one’s disposal, doctor’s will again
make “house calls,” and visits to far off friends and relatives will nearly
suffice for the real thing (a rekindling of the infamous “smell-o-vision” system
to transmit the aroma of Grandma’s fresh apple pie baking in the oven,
perhaps?).
The uses are nearly as endless as ones imagination, and is a field
where current state-of-the-art has only touched the surface of what can and will
be achieved over a very short period of time. So what does all this high tech
wizardry have to do with the economy? Just about everything, actually. Already
governments across the globe are clamoring to be the first to find a practical
method of taxation into this new world wide interchange system. Hopefully, the
Genie has long since been out of the bottle on that one… Shopping malls, already
feeling the effects of internet commerce, may be forced to radically change
their business structure or face certain failure. The parcel delivery systems
are feeling the effects as well as a dramatic increase of flow is being realized
directly through internet sales. As fuel prices continue to climb, video
conferencing, once reserved for the well-healed companies will make sense for
even the smallest of companies.
The ramifications of the internet are wide
ranging and will certainly impact nearly every human being on the face of this
planet. What a marvelous time to be living in to see one of the single biggest
technological advances come to fruition. While the telephone made the world a
much smaller place to live in, the internet has taken the meaning of distance
out of the equation completely. The economy? It’s the internet, stupid…
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