Many in One

Enter, Search, Select, Click

Madhav had an unusual visitor on the Veteran’s day. He welcomed the gentleman who knocked on his door, while his wife and children had gone to watch the parade. When the guest introduced himself, Madhav was more than pleased to have the person’s company: He was an alien from outer space!

The name of the visiting guest was a cluster of what sounded like consonants and could neither be transcribed in English nor pronounced. Observing the host’s confusion, the guest asked Madhav to address him by any name Madhav pleased. Both agreed upon the name of Bruce.

Bruce gave his full address. The exact location didn’t interest Madhav very much. No use of other address lines because there was no US mail service there, anyway.

“I see the world hasn’t changed very much,” Bruce said.

“Well, I can’t confirm or contradict your statement without your reference point,” Madhav answered, trying to get more information.

“I was here last when the Crusades were taking place,” Bruce said. “I see wars still go on, if, at least, not openly in the names of gods. I hear gods are today retired from active duty, although nothing is said to move or breathe without their pleasure.”

Evidently, Bruce had seen the parade and perhaps listened to a few speeches on his way to Madhav’s place.

Madhav collected his thoughts before he spoke.

“Bruce, in your place I would be more cautious to draw conclusions based on what I see,” Madhav slowly responded. “What you saw or heard is all a part of the old world. Occasionally, people go there for a brief vacation. Today we live in a new world, not the one created by god in seven days.”

Bruce was taken by surprise. He thought he was visiting one of god’s creations.

“I am not an expert and can’t explain how exactly it works,” Madhav spoke in all modesty. “I will give you a thumbnail view and you can contact others, if you are interested in learning the nuts and bolts of the system. We all now live in separate worlds, each created by respective individuals to their taste and needs.”

“You mean humans no longer live in one world!” Bruce asked, full of curiosity.

“You are right, they all seem to, but they don’t,” Madhav confirmed. “In order to understand the nature of this mysterious reality, first of all you have to know the Internet.”

“Not god, nor heaven, as in the past, but the Internet. Is that correct?” Bruce wanted to make sure he was following Madhav.

“Yes. Please don’t ask me ‘what is Internet?’ just as in the world past, you were not supposed to ask ‘who is god?’ or ‘where is heaven?’ You will get misleading answers, if you persist.”

“OK, please proceed.”

“Then there are Servers and Browsers. I don’t know which one comes first. It is not important. You can live happily without knowing a thing about either, and likewise about many other new words and concepts, just as people lived in the past not knowing a thing about soul, spirit, after life, morality, etc. Of course, if you are curious and want to know further details, there are experts, as I said, --the new theologians and philosophers of the Internet who would give technical accounts, all of which sound gibberish, at least, to me.”

“It all sounds awfully abstract, I must say,” Bruce remarked.

“Abstraction is the foundation of all powerful systems,” Madhav said, adding a philosophical angle. Without it, how do you think you keep people enslaved?”

“You mean slavery is still in practice?”

“Let us not go into that unpleasant topic now. This would only distract our attention away from the subject on hand.”

“Could you please walk me through this Internet?” Bruce asked.

Madhav invited Bruce to his laptop. By way of introduction, he said all the operations that Bruce need to know are ENTER, SEARCH, SELECT and CLICK. Following this, he gave a demonstration how we create a cyberspace, a world of our own, by entering, searching, selecting and clicking, and how we live in it all day.

“In other words, the world is uploaded on the Internet,” Bruce said, picking up the jargon.

“You got it!” Madhav said, encouraged by Bruce’s quick grasp of the subject.

“Does Internet have prophets?”

“A good question,” Madhav replied, and continued. “We don’t. Wonderful, isn’t it? Initially, there was a brief debate over two candidates: Bill Gates and Al Gore. The matter was quickly resolved, in keeping with netiquette. Each individual is a prophet unto himself/ herself, p lower case, in the Internet and cyberspace.”

“What is, by the way, netiquette, is it something akin to god’s commandments?

“You guessed it right; netiquette is a set of strict rules.”

“Do you pray?” Bruce asked, hesitatingly.

“Everyone does,” Madhav said. “At home, in school, government offices, public places, and in the court. No ban for prayer here. Prayer is the foundation on which the Internet is built. We pray all day, and use four simple words—ENTER, SEARCH, SELECT, CLICK in our prayers. You may call them prayers or four-fold path, or four goals of life, whatever takes your fancy.”

“Interesting! What about crime?”

“Unfortunately, crime has followed us,” Madhav said with a sigh. “Our law-enforcing authorities work round the clock to catch adwares, malwares, spywares, physhing agents, and a host of other criminal gangs and quarantine them, but we do still have crime.”

“What about death and salvation?”

“Death is unknown in the cyberspace of the Internet, so the question of salvation doesn’t arise,” Madhav said. “Once something is uploaded on the Internet, it lasts for eternity, becomes immortal. That is our glory and sorrow.”

“I understand your feelings,” said Bruce, commiserating.

Skipping from topic to topic, the discussion turned to the subject of love.

“Take, for example, the dating practice,” Madhav lectured to show how the ritual was simplified and made efficient. “You know that it consumes a lot of time of men and women trying to find a date and make an appointment. You try one, and if it fails you try another until someone is free and willing to date with you a given weekend. Think of all the telephone calls and seemingly endless correspondence involved in the process. None of this is necessary now. You simply outsource this job to a company who has the staff specialized in communication skills. They take care of the entire process, find a suitable person of the same sex or the opposite sex, and make the appointment for you online. You want a date this weekend? You can see how it works.”

Bruce wavered.

While Bruce was trying to make up his mind, Madhav’s wife and children returned home, and went straight to their computers without even saying hello or serving up a simple smile.

Madhav asked, “How do you like this new world?”

While Bruce was lost in contemplation, Madhav opened his e- mail account and saw communications from his wife and children. They were happy that he had company in their absence. They wanted to know if the gentleman was a relative or friend from his village Saligrama, India. They planned to celebrate his visit and were ordering pizza online.

Madhav showed Bruce the e-mails, containing warm greetings decorated with animated smileys and emoticons.

“It would require a separate session to introduce you to the e-mail feature,” Madhav said. “This is enough for today. You have still a long way to go. You have only scratched the surface of the Internet. I won’t press you to give your opinion hastily. I advise you to consult the experts before you form or give an opinion.”