Just got a phone call from a delicious woman of high intelligence that I have been married to for more than 60 years. She called to let me know that Prof. Michael Pollan, author of several books we have read, is on Wisconsin Public Radio. We particularly enjoyed his book "How to Change Your Mind", full of truly beautiful and moving language about psychedelics and their potential. This notification from my wife is a good example of a modern problem: more good stuff than one has time, energy and funds for.
Despite what a person might feel, there is only one of each of us humans. We can enjoy the company of another but there are limits to our hours awake, our ability to concentrate, even our ability to enjoy. I received an email earlier today "The Best of Pocket 2021" and I decided to write about the article, the Pocket service and the general supply of writers and online sources.
You probably know the name of Tim Berners-Lee. He is often cited as the inventor of the World Wide Web. Darpa, an agency of the US department of defense, and some scientists had computers connected, for the purpose of rapid exchange of information. I just saw the date 1989 cited as the year that Berners-Lee and others saw the possibility of a worldwide network of computers using specialized addresses to find and exchange files with each other. Things developed to the point that many people have their own locations on the World Wide Web, usually called "websites."
I see estimates that 80% of the current human population can read. Of course, as methods of communication have broadened and improved, speech sounds and pictures have been included in what sorts of communication can be transmitted by computer. And, don't forget: smartphones and tablets like the iPad and its cousins are important tools of communication today. I just read that a bit more than 50% of internet traffic comes from phones.
I saw a note a few years ago that many youth in China aspire to be "influencers", that is, people who appear on computers to talk nicely and recommend their choice of the right clothing, books, foods, etc. Many people graduate from school with a desire to write their thoughts, ideas and experiences. The Pocket service, currently part of the Firefox browser, one of several competing tools to enable visiting sites on the World Wide Web, collects articles and enables Firefox users to learn about them and read them if desired.
https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/pocket/pocket-best-of-2021/
