THEN: MOON EXPLORER
NOW: INTERNET EXPLORER
On July 20, 1969 we sat around in front our TV’s watching as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left the safety of Apollo 11 and walked on the Moon. After ten long years, the United States had won the space race. It seemed really unbelievable that man was actually walking on that celestial body and that we were watching it happen. It was a reality show, long before that term was coined.
For many years after that, we continued to put men and women into outer space, but it seems that the moon was destined to be the only body we would set foot on. And as far as I know, no aliens have landed on Earth. Although parents of teenagers might have a different opinion. I know I did, when my daughter was a thirteen.
But back to the Universe. Its endlessness is a mind boggling concept. I can’t really understand something going on forever and ever and ever.
I have a similar feeling when trying to understand Cyberspace. A place that has no limits. That goes on forever and ever and ever.
It’s such an immense entity, my tiny little thoughts get lost. They start chasing themselves and I end up forgetting what I was thinking about in the first place.
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But not the explorers of today. They are “getting it” and “getting into it.” Instead of discovering new continents or landing on new planets, they are discovering virtual places, worlds only known in yesterday’s science fiction stories.
Facebook. Twitter. Linkedin.
Some of this I get. Some I don’t. I like connecting with old friends and seeing photos of family members living in different time zones. I like sharing good news. I get the part about promoting oneself. I enjoy playing games, such a scrabble, with people you’ve never met. All good things, as far as I’m concerned.
But there are some aspects that I just don’t get. I don’t want to be in a pretend food fight. If I’m going to get mashed potatoes in my face, I want them in my face! I want to know if they are lumpy or seasoned with garlic. If I go on an African Safari I want to feel the earth beneath my feet and hear the lions roar.
What I am supposed to do with a pretend bouquet? Put it in a pretend vase on my pretend windowsill? And how do I know that the friend who sent it to me is even real? Maybe it’s just a pretend friend.
Everyday, the virtual place is growing and growing. And here goes my mind again into that circle of never ending thoughts.
Well, some say that man didn’t even walk on the moon. That it was all pretend. So who knows?
Maybe one of these days, one of my new friends will be transported from my computer screen into my house. We’ll touch hands. Hear each other’s voices. Laugh together. And take a walk to the local coffee shop, smelling the “real” flowers on the way.
Janie, great line about the moon walk being a reality show! I remember it well, and yes, we were all circled around the black and white set, watching, waiting…
And enjoyed your musings on cyber-friendship. While I, too, prefer to hug and hear one another’s real time voices, the one thing I prefer to leave on Facebook is the poking! Really don’t want someone coming up to me in the supermarket or a restaurant and dig their finger into my arm!
Hard to believe that the last shuttle mission has been launched, Janie. At least cyberspace is still around for all of us to access and learn about to the extent of our interest, and its possibilities keep expanding. I do enjoy meeting some of my cyber-friends face-to-face now and then, such as at writing conferences. I also hope there will be future space missions soon.
I am sad about the space program. Growing up it symbolized a life with-out limits, that anything was possible.
It is fun to meet some cyber friends. I have found that some express themselves better in writing than in person and others are so witty and funny that never come across on line.
Maybe in the near future some cyber friend will take a space trip and those of us on earth will watch and have a vicarious thrill.
Me, too Haralee. And I like what you said about watching cyber friend go into space. In fact, I’d like to be that friend!
What a great post! I remember watching them step onto to moon and a great roar went up. Computers were just starting around college campuses. Ours had a Dec 10, whatever that was, and we got in trouble because we were playing a game that costs them tons of money all converted by computer time into “real” time or some such nonsense. That computer filled a whole room and had nothing compared to what my little laptop does now. In fact, the computers that put a man on the moon would scare us today, they would be so inferior. What I hope we remember is that computers, as well as cyberspace, are tools for people to use. I love having the technology but I also love being able to meet my friends and share that coffee–without the computer.
Shannon – Thanks so much! I agree with you. Computers are tools for people to use, not the other way around.
It was sad watching our space program come to an end.
One of my favorite commericals was one where a man comes out of his den at home, bleary-eyed, and staggering. His wife, watching TV, stares at him and he says, “I just reached the end of the Internet.” LOL That’s how I feel sometimes. I start looking up one thing and end up on something totally different!