Your Idea is More Timely Than Ever

A buddy of mine pointed out this article by Clifford Stoll, a once "big name" in science and astronomy. The article titled, "The Internet? Bah!" with the subtitle: "Hype alert: Why cyberspace isn't, and will never be, nirvana." Written in 1995, Stoll rants for about 600 words about how the Internet will never replace the newspaper, the book, or casual reading materials like magazines. My favorite line has to be:

"How about electronic publishing? Try reading a book on disc. At best, it's an unpleasant chore: the myopic glow of a clunky computer replaces the friendly pages of a book. And you can't tote that laptop to the beach. Yet Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Internet. Uh, sure."

I'm not here to bash Stoll, it was a total guess from a man who was hoping things wouldn't change. But to me, this article is a very telling sign of two things our world is going through:

1) Things are moving fast. Duh. So fast, that this article from 15 years ago could have been refuted 7 years ago. Our ideas are becoming more and more timely and devalued and proven wrong faster than ever. With more access to information, it is easier to see through a seemingly new argument.

2) No matter what, many of your ideas and worldview will be outdated at some point. Every generation laughs at certain things about the generation before it. Your children's children will prove most of your ideas wrong. It happens all the time and your grandchildren are no exception. Never assume the classical nature of your opinion, it is more than likely that it'll be changed completely.

It is clear to me that the most important thing the human can do now is seek the ideas and worldviews that have stood the test of time. Certainly there are many. One of my favorite writers, Marilynne Robinson, recognizes in her book of essays, The Death of Adam, that the primary defect in post-modernism is the ignorance and ignoring of primary texts. Her main beef is with the critics of John Calvin, the great Protestant Reformer of Geneva, many of whom have never read the Institutes, but have read what people have said about them and just mimic the critics opinion.

With the rise of the information age, it's more difficult than ever to decipher who will end up standing the test of time and who's ideas will be laughable in ten years. Maybe that's encouragement to read the classics, as it gives one an eye for the imperishable.

But hey, it's just an idea that could be seen as ridiculous tomorrow.