`New Renaissance' is upon us

Please allow me to interrupt your reality for just one moment.

When I say, "your reality," I'm not trying to be a wiseass. I'm just asking you to take a five-minute break from whatever preoccupies you, kick back with a cup of (insert favorite beverage here), put your feet up and forget about your reality for a few minutes.

We - that is, you and I - live in the single most remarkable age of our planet's existence. Every day, stunning technological advances portend the birth of newer, more Bradbury-like advances in our way of living.

Recently, we humans had our genes catalogued. In short order, the folks who are into such things will develop new cures for the most debilitating and dangerous diseases. They will discover the cure for old age. They will make us super humans.

Just today it was announced that a bunch of condensed matter physicists in Tokyo, Japan have discovered high-temperature, super-conducting material that is non-exotic, i.e., it's readily available, cheap and easy to work with.

What does this mean for you and I? How about train systems that float on a cushion of air and magnetism. Trains that whip us from Albuquerque to Alabama in minutes ... I guess all of that speed is great if you are trying to get out of Alabama. Electric cars that can go 500 miles on a charge and be recharged with a solar battery system are much closer to reality.

Recent advances in quantum mechanics put us just a relative breath away from computers so powerful that they will make the newest, Blue Man Group-sponsored Intel desktops look like they are standing still. The fields of optics and material sciences are giving us networks and switches that will transmit whole libraries of information coast to coast in the blink of an eye.

Think about it. We are witness to the birth of an age in which all people will soon be able to talk to each other, exchange ideas and ideologies and learn about anything and everything there is to learn. We are in "The New Renaissance." Now some of you may be put off by the term "renaissance," and I completely understand.

The first Renaissance, for those of you who slept through that day in history class, was the 14th century humanistic revival of literature, classical art and learning. It started in Italy and spread throughout Europe. Expression and sharing of ideas brought about great cultural advances the likes of which the world had never seen, and would not see again, until now.

You and I are free to think, create, draw, compose and calculate. We can publish our ideas and billions of people can look at them, consider them, add to them, comment on them ... all in an instant! It does not matter if you can't draw, write music or even calculate: Software is available to help teach you, even software that will do it for you. It is so easy to do almost anything you want in our age that there is no excuse for not just doing them.

Have you always wanted to learn about the mating habits of butterflies? A Web site will have the information. Want to know what the Islamic religion is really all about? Tons of sites can help you with that question. Want to write a book? Do it! Don't know how? Some Web sites can teach and show you how to do it. We no longer have any excuses for not living, not learning, or not doing.

Often, people ponder what life is all about. It seems relatively straightforward to me. Life is about living. It is not about your job, the car you drive or the clothes you wear. It is about maximizing the potential you have as a human being. Our greatness is in our intellect and our ability to communicate the ruminations of our minds.

Any monkey can go to the gym and "get buff." No chimp learns French. A store will sell a designer dress to a dog. A dog will never write a Haiku.

Take a few hours a week and dedicate it to being human, living and maximizing your human potential. You work to live, you do not live to work. Be a part of the "New Renaissance." Live a little.

.

Questions? Comments? Outraged denunciations? Write to Brad at: physhead@hotmail.com