The future is ours to see 1

It is human to predict the future. It is also human not to believe in these predictions, but nevertheless it’s not so hard to foresee what is coming.

Since the Internet we experience the prologue of a brand new world, which, for most of us, is still hard to understand. We believe that things are going fast, to fast for a lot, but is this really so?

In spite of applications like Facebook or Twitter, the new medium didn’t change a lot. These hot items of today are nothing more then a globalization of what already existed. Where we are involved in now is nothing more then a wide spread school magazine, with personal stories and pictures of ourselves. Is this the ultimate of what Internet has to offer?

The answer is YES! At least if the medium itself doesn’t evolve. Internet today is just a bunch of connected machines which allow us to share sounds and images: a picture postcard of were we live, an expression of how we feel… It’s new that we basically can connect from almost every location in real time, and because it is new, we think of it as hot. In the past people had to travel, today we switch the button, and like to believe that it is the same, that we are really connected within a distance of half the globe.

There is, however, a major difference. What we express in our homes, we can freely do, because of the fact that those who we are expressing to, are not in front of us. We are still in the stadium that machines addressing machines, in stead of humans communicating.

One can argue that Internet allows world wide communication, and in a certain way this is true, but with the ability restrictions of the user.

In spite of all apps, most users today are unable to express or communicate the same way as they would in their own pre Internet environment. And that is were the future changes will be.

Internet is just the beginning of a narrower world where distance and know-how of techniques still make the difference. It still is a divided world with more walls then the middle ages ever saw. The individual in his cabin, facing the wall of his provider who can cut him loose if he doesn’t pay, or express him selves in a way the lordship doesn’t like. For the avarice user there is no way around. He has to obey the rules and regulations, but that will change…

Like the downfall of the music industry after the Napster war, in future the bricks of the protecting walls will collapse in every area as we know it. Not because of a www and the difficulties of global regulations, but because of expanding knowledge and simpler techniques, available to everyone. An ongoing development which is called evolution, gave power in the past to those who were physical strong, later to those who had access to materials, and today to the ones who have the knowledge skills. The evaluation is not hard to see. Even this fetus, the Internet truly is, gives access to all the knowledge an individual can dream of, which means that knowledge in future won’t be a reason for power anymore. Power as an expression for the individual ruling a group will disappear, which struggle we already see today. The next stage will be a true and worldwide anarchy. The question is, because of this, if mankind will survive or disappear as a victim of his own success…

… to be continued … 

The Quest

She waved when she left me forever. I didn’t know, and smiled and kissed the distance of divorce between us. A distance which would grow. I never saw her back.

After almost three years. How could I know? Even afterwards I don’t see the signs. She just disappeared…

That last glimpse is etched into my mind. Curly hair, blond, and cut like Marilyn Monroe. Warm laughing blue eyes. A face that looked back to me in love. It’s not what I want to see. It’s how she was. How that moment was.

Still, the leaving was there. In small things. She knew. I couldn’t imagine that I would never see her again, but she did.

Her hair was cut, while I loved her long waving curls. It made her a new she. Fresh and different, which I had to admit. To me she seemed as blossom in spring, and hair grows.

-“When I come back it will be long again”; she assured. I smiled, and looked at the trousers, where I preferred her wearing skirts.

-“It’s more comfortable while traveling.” I nodded.

She defended without me attacking her. I even told her how fantastic she looked. She presented herself in guilt, and I still don’t know why. She could have changed after she left, but decided to show me her new self before stepping into a world I never would know.

Oh yes, I traveled the globe, searching, following her footsteps, asking and tracking, and sometimes I came quite near. She had just left, I heard, only a few days before. I could almost smell her sense, but I never saw her back. Not even in a distance, as I thought a couple of times.

Once I tipped the shoulder of a Marilyn-Monroe-look-alike, and she turned, smiled a similar smile, what made the disappointment even bigger.

Thanks to her I saw countries I never would have seen, and experienced situations I never would have got into. I became a globetrotter, not because of a need, but as a quest for her.

Some chase careers, others a destination, but I… I chased the love of my youth for more then a lifetime.

I know she probably won’t be around anymore. Too many years have passed. I’m older then most, perhaps the last of a generation. And still I hope to see her once again. That’s all I still live for. The hope of her return with the same looks she left me, before I close my eyes, and the young nurse who always smiles when she enters the room, will cover my face with a sheet. Then the longing will be over. But maybe that’s the secret: to meet again in afterlife…

It's a while ago

Finally back on the net. In the mean time it is 2012, a new year, and from here I thank all my followers and give them my respect for their patience. 

With two playing cats around my feet it is impossible to think and write, that's why I decide to publish a short story about them, as a welcome back, and happy new year to all of you. A story in Dutch, which I wrote some months ago. I may translate it later, who knows... Just to practice my brains and wrists, and celebrate that I spend my thoughts on the Internet again.

Eenzame Overpeinzing.

Ze likte zichzelf. Zwart met felle ogen, beet ze van zich af. Hij durfde haar niet naderen. Ze was nog niet zo ver.

Ik keek toe en lachte. Het speelse geweld van twee jonkies, pas aangekomen. Nog wat onwennig hadden ze toch mijn huis al ingepalmd. Het was van hun, niet meer van mij, al deed ik nog een zwakke poging de gordijnen te beschermen toen ze erin klommen.

Alles kwam naar beneden, maar het was mijn schuld. Ik had de gaten niet diep genoeg geboord om het gewicht van een paar honderd gram meer dat zich met geweld omhoog werkte te dragen.

Het donderend geraas, in combinatie met de plotse lichtverschuiving, deed de buurvrouw naar boven kijken. Haar hond liep vrij over het grasveld. Hij blafte naar het vallende doek met wanhopig klauwende pootjes.

Ik trok mijn schouders op naar de glimlachende vrouw en overzag tegelijk de ravage. Zuchtte om het karwei dat ik over moest doen.

Ik had er geen zin in. Te lui om de boorkist te openen schakelde ik de tv in, zapte langs de kanalen die hier en daar maar enkele tellen iets te bieden hadden. Ik stond nog en volgde vanuit een ooghoek de kapriolen van de hond die in de late herfstzon zijn eigen schaduw joeg.

Een buurt als een ander, waar niets viel te beleven, en de tijd te kort om erop uit te trekken. Morgen moest ik toch weer werken. Ik kon maar beter leren genieten van het beetje vrijheid dat ik had.

Ik benijdde beide poesjes die genoeg hadden aan hun spel, en zodra ze het moe werden gewoon in slaap vielen. De zorgeloosheid en het plezier die mijn deel niet meer waren.

Lang geleden was ik net zo speels en ondernemend en had de lachende buurvrouw op de koffie gevraagd om de katjes aan de hond te laten wennen en samen de tijd te verdrijven.

Maar dat was lang geleden. Onheuglijk lang haast. Herinnering als korrelig zwart-wit van een filmpje uit de vorige eeuw.

Ik was oud geworden, en zo mijn interesses. Vergeten weggevloeid in de tijd die te snel, maar ook te langzaam ging om zinvol te besteden.

Destijds haatte ik mijn vader die na het werk in zijn stoel snurkte waarom ik stil moest zijn, en kon onmogelijk vermoeden dat mij hetzelfde wachte. Waarom had ik anders twee poezen toegelaten? Ze leken mijn leven te vullen met hun spel, terwijl ik alleen maar naar hen keek.