Something to see

I recommend picking up the Wired Magazine on stands and reading "A Guide to the Online Video Explosion." Being Wired, the article is a little hyperbolic about all the video that is suddenly on the internet. Nevertheless, it’s very impressive how broadband, like the bursting of a dike, has swept consumer generated media content along from blogging to podcasting to video in short order. In just about a year video has poured onto computers, cell phones, iPods, and game consoles. If this isn’t Kurzweilian accelerating change, I don’t know what is.

The article uses what I think is an appropriate phrase: "The mess is the message." The stuff that is spewing onto the net is a mishmash from the profane to the, uh, sublime. But what spins my propeller is the notion that tens or hundreds of millions of people who formerly had zero chance of getting expression through old mass media like TV, magazines, books, and other restricted forms of publishing now are letting it rip. I think it’s an awesome social phenomenon that’ll change our perceptions of ourselves and human expression. (Gradiose enough?) This revolution alone (not to mention biology and others) will produce culture-ripping change worldwide. Strap yourself in for the 21st century.