AOL chat, which is organized into topical areas, has spawned a whole new society of people, many who have never met IRL (in real life), but spend numerous hours with each other every day sharing information about common interests and lifestyle options. The virtual community is becoming more and more popular with the last of its holdout groups-senior citizens-as they excersise their options for online banking and investing, recipe trading, and chatting about their mutual friends in AOL communities. For the real serious computer geeks, there is still IRC (internet relay chat) where AOL'ers are made fun of for their lack of computer skills and knowledge of the internet (AOL is not the internet).
The next few years will mark the "return to the beautiful" according to Melissa Nunn, a dance teacher who follows and observes social trends in arts and college age citizens. The nineties were an era filled with computerized music, computerized dance, robotic videos, trance music, automated phone service options, and the bombardment of more technological advances that any other decade in history. This has spawned the backlash pendulum swing: the craving for real, basic, low tech, and ultra-human things. The "return to the beautiful" trend is all around us....its the explanation for why human interest movies are becoming more popular than new versions of Doom and Quake, why people are starting to really appreciate the subtleties of real musicians (gasp) performing music at the same time again, and why the newest explanation of the universe-string theory- is incorporating aspects of chance, wild behaviour, and less rigid views of the space/time continuum. Ballet, Jazz, Painting, and many other art forms will be making a big comeback into the new millennium.
The newest explanation of the universe-string theory- is taking the scientific and metaphysical worlds by storm, and for good reason. No one was more excited that I was when the Los Angeles Times newspaper put string theory on the front page in December of 1999, and featured simple, well thought out explanations of how string theory works. I've long suspected the universe of having more than three or four dimensions, and now it looks like I may be thought of as a deep thinker and innovator instead of a weirdo when it comes to my belief that there is something a lot deeper going on than relativity, quantum mechanics, christianity, buddhism, and the big bang theory. I've spent most of my life longing for a unified theory that would explain lifes processes, our incredible astronomy, where my music actually comes from, what the channels of communication are between the dead and living, and how religion and my faith in God interracts with all of that. String theory at this time seems to be the answer. For more information on this topic, a great book to get is "The Elegant Universe" by Brian Green which I am in the process of reading now. Brian uses all lower case letters as well so he's gotta be cool..lol. An 11 dimensional world suits me fine and makes a whole lot more sense than the previous explanations offered during my lifetime.
Diversity in all its forms will be what excites us more and more as well go into the 21st century. People tiring of the thought of the ever expanding universe will have access to more low tech-high touch things such as poetry from an ever growing amount of sources. People living in third world countries will start to grow and share and change as the internet becomes available to the rich there, and finally, the masses. A new appreciation for the myriad of possibilities in cultural exchange and diversity will launch the largest growth and exchange of ideas, goods, services and economies the world has ever known.
Rob Mullins
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