Web is a thought-provoking and character-based consideration of technology, interdependence, and the Internet. For 10 mo | dG1fZTgzc2dGM0ptbEk
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00:00 Almost everyone comes to the conclusion that whatever their time is, is a critical time in human history.
00:07 So I'm not sure that I would buy an absolute argument.
00:10 But I think it's fair to say that we're at a tipping point in terms of people's access to computer-based information.
00:26 The world is changing. The numbers of languages are reducing.
00:30 And there will be a time where we will be one race speaking one language.
00:35 That's where we're headed.
00:37 In the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years, the rest of the world is going to come online.
00:48 For the first time, we're going to be hearing directly from people we've not heard from before.
00:54 What does "civilization" mean?
00:57 People talk about civilization. I don't understand.
01:00 What does it mean?
01:02 Gosh, you know, you look at all of human history, and you have a good, like, 40,000 years of just talking, face-to-face interaction.
01:11 And then you get the printing press. And then 500 years, you get electronic communication.
01:15 And now, every day, there's probably five or six new applications, and it changes the way everybody's connected.
01:21 Because of things like Facebook and Twitter, there's millions of people, hundreds of millions of people, that are trained to use this type of software now.
01:27 So all the stars kind of align and allow you to do things that we've just never been able to do before.
01:32 I think there's a certain way in which these connections are becoming easier to make.
01:39 As these connections become more automatic, then, you know, what happens to our sense of real connection?
01:45 [Speaking Spanish]
01:55 For the first time, it is theoretically possible to communicate with every human being on Earth,
02:02 and to allow them to communicate with each other, and to connect them to the people and to the knowledge that they need to make something of their own lives.
02:12 What have we lost? We know what we've gained with email and telephones and whatever else is characteristic of modernization, but what have we lost?
02:20 The story of humanity is a story of cultural traditions disappearing by human choice.
02:27 When we or our grandchildren look back and see what we made of the Internet, when we were the first people to shape its place in society,
02:36 the question they're going to ask is, did they use it to change the world for the better?
02:41 [Music]