Author's Note on Electric Mythology

Strangely, I seem to have gone on a rather holistic approach to understanding the effects of the Internet. One thing that seems to be happening in our society (or at least the scientific/technical part of society) is a move away from religion. Simultaneously there is a move toward religion by those who, I think, are afraid of change.

This is not a Bad Thing. This is how Humans have behaved for thousands of years.

This is the reason that the internet will some how evolve and entwine itself (or be evolved and entwined) into the spiritual side of society. As it grows more complex and difficult to understand, some parts of society may turn towards some form of religion.

As in the previous post, this is already happening. But it isn't out of lack of understanding. At least, not yet. Like traditional pagans, which involve nature as their main point of worship, it has merely added cyberspace as an "natural" element.

Researchers are working towards making cyberspace more like an alternate reality. Massively-multi-player games (like Everquest or Star Wars: Galaxies) are a prime example of this. They are simulated realities were a player is a simulated version of themselves. The ideal evolution of this concept is that cyberspace itself is one massively multi-player experience.

Once it simple becomes another form of reality, religion will follow en masse. The underlying aspects of the cyberspace universe (or universes) will be understood by the hackers who created it. That still leaves millions (billions?) who would be left with the same problems and issues the have here in the real world: social problems.

Social problems have social solutions.