Jed's of the Week

The Chemical Brothers, "If You Kling to Me I'll Klong You" / Identity and Information

The Chemical Brothers, "If You Kling to Me I'll Klong You" This song first struck me as a classic while driving up to Pennsylvania with my neighbors, the Shansbys. We were moseying up to Shohola summer camp in Mr. Shansby's minivan and little Eric Shansby popped a tape full of Chemical Brothers b-sides that I had put together into the deck. We sat in the back of the van and danced along, but we didn't know what to do when we got to this track. Laser gun sounds? Spacey synth strings? Bleeps? Bloops? Then, one minute and forty-two and a half seconds into the song after a handful of false start drum breaks, the bass drops. I don't know why that minivan had an Infinity sound system in it, but it did and the bass rolled us through those green hills and over that summer highway and into the woods. I remember that July 1996 afternoon moment as the beginning of a great weekend full of mini golf, Oreos, Ben and Jerry's Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz ice cream, and Goodwill. That bassline stuck with me for my entire two years as a missionary in Venezuela. Mad props to anyone who can figure out what is said towards the end of the song. I'm sure it's some sort of message presaging Tupac's murder, but I really can't tell.

NOTICE: Everything here is of the week, therefore this site will be known as Jed's Of the Week from now on. I'll put up songs, I'll put up pictures, I'll put up words, but nothing is going to be greater than the other. Well, at least nothing will be presented as though it is better than anything else. Soak it all up.

Last week, I threw out a few weird ideas about possible ways to physically incorporate technology into our bodies and minds and the repercussions of said integration. Now, I want to continue the topic, but I'm going to stray a bit from the cyborg-esque aspects of the discussion. I'm going to touch on the relationship between technology and society.

I foresee a world immersed in the internet. Telephone conversations, television broadcasts, radio, car on-board navigation systems, web-pages and any other sort of information will shoot all around us via the internet. Obviously, the infrastructure that we have to work with today is not capable of handling so much information, but I believe that some sort of network similar to the internet will eventually pervade our bedrooms, kitchens, cars, and streets. It will become The Resource from which everyone will shop (not necessarily for everything), get driving directions, get weather, read or listen to news, search yellow and white pages, order food, do academic research and set our clocks.

So what's the big deal?

People relate to one another through various media. Shared songs, for instance, have played a huge role in the union of people for thousands of years. Look at the way KMFDM fans dress, look at the way Deathcab For Cutie fans dress, look at the way the Cash Money Millionaires dress. A shared appreciation of music leads people to dress a certain way in order to help them to identify one another.

The above are small groups of Americans that are bonded by music or fashion. But what makes us all Americans? We go to the same schools, we watch the same TV, we hear the same radio, and, in essence, we share a lot of the same information. That is, after all, what this all boils down to on the internet. It's all information. The internet dominated world that I predict will create a single source of information, however vast, shared by the entire world. We will all be able to refer one another to the same pool of ideas and information. Just as I am using this tool to share my ideas with you, I am referring you to other sites, songs and photography. 10 years ago, I would not have been able to publish this much information nearly as easily. What's more, all of this is unhindered by geography.

Yeah yeah yeah, bid deal, we know all of this! What's the point?

I'm tired so I'm not going to write any more this week, but what I am getting at is that the internet is spreading all over the globe. It will be a common ground on which all may be heard. The masses' access to the internet is limited by economics, but such an inexpensive means of making your voice heard around the world has been heretofore unimagined. It's also purely democratic. The sites that are worth seeing are found out and publicized purely based on content and purely by "the people" and it doesn't matter how much money you have. illmitch.com (thanks to Keith Paugh for that one) has received close to half a million hits based entirely on word of mouth. I wonder how many hits doritos.com gets. doritos.com might blow illmitch.com out of the water regarding it hit count, but illmitch.com has got to shatter doritos.com's cost:hit ratio. Now, I know that Ill Mitch probably isn't from Russia and I'm not trying to promote my international unity thing, but it's a good example of something sort of clever catching the attention of nearly half a million people with little more than a camera, a helmet, a punching bag, a vest and a skateboard.

Anyhow, I simply think that this massive sharing of information will serve to unite people on a certain level. I'm not saying that the internet is the savior of humanity and will finally bring peace to the world, but it does offer a powerful new means to promote understanding....and everything evil at the same time. Take your pick. I'm tired.

November 17, 2002