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i've been thinking about people's views of technology (more specifically, the internet) in the past, and how utopic they once were, and how that vision seems to have been left behind, replaced by a commercial model. looking back through my old documents i found this essay for an application to NYU's crazy technology division of Tisch. (please forgive the highschool prose.) i post this in hopes that other people will write about their feelings about and visions of technology in the past - i know that skein isn't populated solely by geeks, so i'm also interested in the ideas and possible imaginings of people who were not as expectant about the coming of all this technology that now pervades our lives, or perhaps doesn't. skein is a fun place to have these comparative essays, so i hope you will take time to contribute whatever you may have to say.
 

Christopher G. Fanjul -- Essay for New York University -- December 1995
 

Question A)
 

By now the phrase "information revolution" has begun to whither in its significance. We hear it so often that it is just taken as fact, and then forgotten. This should not be so. This "revolution" is not fading, rather, it is just beginning, and it is the responsibility of my generation to realize its full potential. As a part of this era of exponential technological advance, I feel that I have a role in defending it against those opposed to change and the enhancing of society through digital means. The roles of media and technology in this age are intense and important, for they will be responsible for the creation of a new way of thinking. As it stands right now, the Internet is a prime example of the changing mindset of the new America and the world. People are interacting not only more efficiently, but at an ethereal level, where to age-old prejudices connected to appearance are removed. In this way, communication is held between two "essences", without bodies to hinder them, and the strength of the mind is left to cope by itself. It is in this way that the minds of a generation will be expanded, making us think at a heightened level. Brain power is what media and technology are all about. We are fed with information and images that enable us to think faster, make more connections, and produce more complex thoughts than were possible before. We are no longer contained by the boundaries of reality, but instead we are ruled by the limits of our own imaginations, making the fantastic possible. Science fiction, movie special effects, computer animation, all of this is attractive to us because we see it as possible. These kinds of images feed our imaginations, giving us ideas and fueling our creative abilities to produce a society that is equally without bounds. Our culture is being changed from black-and-white to Technicolor, with technology adding the next dimension, that of the mind.