The Internet is, hands down, the greatest communication medium humankind has come up with to this point (2010). The problem, as with previous communication methods (cave paintings-->MP4s) is that all too often signal is cancelled out and/or overwhelmed by noise. This is what Korzybski warned us about in his treatise on General Semantics entitled SCIENCE AND SANITY: if we use our word-symbols with correct meaning, we perceive the universe objectively. If we use them incorrectly--as, say, schizophrenics do--we use them incorrectly. As the comp engineers are famous for saying, GIGO. (Len Deighton wrote a brilliant novel based on the GIGO meme entitled The BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN, where the computer in question was owned by a paranoid billionaire. Since the data fed to the computer had to be approved by said billionaire, the world-view it generated--based on faulty data--neatly conformed to his worst fears.)
I am, from this moment, declaring myself foursquare against the noise the Internet produces (e.g., anything Sarah Palin says). In response, I will produce as much intelligent signal as my cognitive processes will allow. I wish I was a genius of Hawking's caliber, but I'll just have to do what I can with what I have.
Here's my opening salvo:
