There is a scene in the Lord of the Rings movie where the village\nis being attacked and the children are sent to light the bonfire. It\u2019s a system\nof fires set up to be lit across hilltops. This was the warning system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the medieval 3- way handshake: light signal fire- far\nend sees signal fire. Far end lights signal fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s how the internet does it. But the internet hadn\u2019t\nhappened yet. There were a few more stops along the way between the signal fire\nand the internet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Post office changed everything. Ben Franklin had a great\ninstinct for marketing, and the story goes that he invented electricity, white\nwigs and the post office, but the real breakthrough came from Victorian England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Letters had been around since writing. The way it went is the\nletter writer would find some lucky person, and ask him to deliver it. The\nperson would be paid by the person receiving the letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remember that old saying \u201cDon\u2019t kill the messenger\u201d? The value\nof a letter depended a lot on what was in it. There were risks involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sir Rowland Hill invented stamps. England created a set of\nposts so that deliveries of these prepaid letters could be sent to anyone. And\nthe letters were secret the envelope protected the message from strange eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was new in the world. Sir Rowland had to vision and got\nenough cooperation to make it a reality. No one had thought of it before, but\nonce it existed it took off. It was so sensible it spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until it was created, it wasn\u2019t even a concept. It was impossible\nuntil one day it was normal. And once it was normal it could be made better and\nbetter until we have this internet that erases time and distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And we have a system that the whole world is riding on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This normal amazing this didn\u2019t used to be here. There are things\njust offstage waiting to be possible. I wonder what is next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There is a scene in the Lord of the Rings movie where the village is being attacked and the children are sent to light the bonfire. It\u2019s a system of fires set up to be lit across hilltops. This was … Continue reading