Some time ago, an Internet company ran a series of ads in which they asked
some famous people "What do you want the Internet to be?" The question
received a variety of responses, as one might expect. I found the responses
each reflected that particular person's values and viewpoints, in an
insightful way.
  Some basketball player (I forget which one, but it doesn't really matter
since all athletes are the same anyway) said: "Full-court Zen". Please pause,
for a moment, to reflect on this; What is "Full-court Zen"? And how can a
spiritual concept like "Zen" be applied to a computer network? What,
precisely, did this basketball player mean?
  The answer, of course, is obvious: He has no idea. Being a basketball
player, he probably doesn't use the Internet much, and was unable to come up
with a vision for its future. So, he deccided to try and sound like he knew
what he was talking about by using a spiritual reference to Buddhism, then
simultaneously attempting to sound witty by tying it with a reference to
basketball.
  More obvious was the answer given by Carlos Santana: He wanted the Internet
to be a bridge across the barriers of race, language, and nation; "A place
where the heart is the only passport you carry." Of course, since Santana is
Hispanic, it would make sense that he would say this. In a way, I can't say I
blame him; What American minority isn't tired of having the INS give them
trouble?
  But the most myopic answer of all was the one given by Elton John: "A
powerful ally in the war against AIDS."
  The Internet could be used to provide an education for people who might
otherwise not have access to one. The Internet can bridge the farthest
distances of the world to bring friends and family in touch with each other.
The Internet can give a voice to people who might otherwise have trouble
getting their word out there.
  But that's not what's really important. Yes, Elton John is right: The most
important thing in the world is that he can continue to have unprotected gay
sex.
  I'm not knocking basketball players. I'm not knocking people who don't know
what the Internet is or how to use it. I'm not knocking Hispanics. I'm not
knocking gay people. I'm not knocking people who have unprotected sex. And
I'm not specifically knocking any of the celebrities in these ads.
  Rather, I'm knocking people who think they're the only ones with problems.
Yes, AIDS is terrible. Yes, the racism and mistreatment which Hispanic
immigrants (or any immigrants, for that matter) are subject to is terrible.
And yes, the lack of intelligence displayed by athletes is terrible.
  But more terrible still, and more universal, is the tendency of people to
center on themselves, turning a blind eye to anything that doesn't affect
them. These celebrities, and many other people, show an attitude of "my
problems are the world's most important problems". And that attitude really
IS one of the world's most important problems.
  And so, here's one of the things I'd like the Internet to be: A wake-up
call to the world. People in the United States don't think about world
problems because they're not exposed to them. Maybe with the growing ubiquity
of the Net, those people will talk to folks who would trade having a racial
slur directed at them for not having to worry about being shot on the bus, or
people who would cut their genitalia off for a decent meal.
  A cure for a disease worse than AIDS: Ignorance.