Over five hundred billion dollars go into the movie industry every year, almost twice that goes into the computer gaming industry. The television marketing industry is multi-trillion. So far the returns on these titanic investments has paid off. We keep buying, they keep selling we all profit in some way.
But the entire entertainment business is panicked about one thing- freedom. And the Internet is providing a nice bundle of that.

The World wide web is providing the grounds for one of the biggest social experiments ever to take place. It is evolving so fast that experts can no longer say what or when the next phase will be. Peer to peer software like Kazaa and E-mule threaten to ruin the music business, ICQ and MSN provide instant communication from any point in the world, the blogosphere is home to over ten million amateur righter (I consider myself a pro) and the MySpace revolution is taking place as we speak (you and me are taking part in it here at zaadz.)

I could put in a few words about how words have become very cheap, and almost no one has time to look through all the trillions of printed words, most of which will mean little to most. But my rantings for a different time.

Right no I want to speculate on the phenomenon of viral videos. No doubt most of you have watched videos on YouTube, and you should know that most of these videos are amateur done. In the last few years videos have been circulating faster and faster and in bigger circles. As more people gain access to the Internet and connection speeds are improved more people watch and speculate on the videos made by fellow surfers.

The interesting phenomenon I'd like to point out is that the successful videos on the Internet can be classified as "cheep entertainment". Anyone in the world can post videos online thanks to so much new technology, and many people have gained celebrity status in return. Such famous videos include the "numa numa kid" the"starwars kid" scandal that ended in a settlement of half a million dollars and hundreds of others.

My question is this- why is it that we, the members of the Internet community, take so much pleasure in watching the mistakes, talents and gags done by amateurs? With modern computer graphics and animation the big screen is showing us action and talent far beyond anything we can find online. What's the big attraction of watching a guy kick a baby (by accident) if Hollywood can make a fight scene like this?

The answer is pure and simple- reality.
Forget what I say about people wanting wanting to escape reality. People might not always want to face reality, but when reality has something incredible to offer people want it more than anything virtual. Forget the Matrix, humanity does want the real world, they just want the real world to be amazing. And it is.

The Internet is providing us with tools to define our own existence. We can put on any mask we want, we can take off any mask we have. We can be who we want, see what we want and talk to whoever else is online. We are only beginning the exploration of the Internet, and it's going to have to be an exploration of ourselves as well.

What will be the next step in Internet evolution? I do not know. But while Hollywood can manufacture amazing things like Heroes, the Matrix and the Apollo moon landing reality can provide things far more incredible than any directer or screen righter can imagine. Pure and simple, we are sitting at the edge of a major evolutionary step into the unknown, and I only home we can survive it.

You see, with technology becoming more and more mobile people are going to be putting more of themselves online. People are already putting they're lives, friends and memories in a place where everyone can share. My own thoughts are being viewed by thousands of people in this article.
What will happen when we don't only share, but also experience? What will the world be like when you can have a vacation at your desk by simply sharing the experience of someone else? Take a trip to Hawaii by logging on! Check out the Niagara falls before stopping for lunch in France? That is only one possibility I know will be possible soon. Just think of all the more impressive things you'll be able to do that we aren't expecting yet.

We are about to make a big decision, one of the biggest decisions we will have to make for the 21st century and the new millennium- are we going to live in reality or trap ourselves in a virtual world?

Red pill or Blue pill?

I don't usually respond to these kind of things, but this question caught my eye.

What do I feel I'm an expert in? In one word- life. I am an expert at how to live life, how to enjoy it and how to make the mot of it. Perhaps at the present moment it might look like I'm not doing the best in life, but that is merely an illusion. As I can't have everything I want right now I preffer to push things off untill I actually need them. All my talents will come to use when I need them.

I am an expert at whatever I do. I am not boasting, I am stating a fact. No matter what field of interest I take upon myself I will be one of the best in it. May it be writing, dancing, studying or having sex, I will be the best in that field. I will not let myself settle for second place. I cannot do such a thing. The possibility doesn't even exist.

I am the best there is and no one can beat me cause no one can. The only records I have left to break are my own, and my goal is to break those records again and again.

It is no secret that the state of affairs in the American educational system is on a steep slope of decline. Those who deny this are deluding themselves. People in America are stupid! That is not a spiteful remark on my part, it is a proven fact. The kids in the schools are losing all motivation to learn, they are slow, immature and easily persuaded by a consumer oriented media.

Whay is causing this? The US holds the strong opinion that it is the strongest nation on earth. It's illusions of unbreakable power gives it's citizens ego in places where it shouldn't be (let me say Babylon, Rome and Germany) and which is already leading to it's downfall. AMERICAN EDUCATION IS APPROACHING THAT OF THIRD WORLD NATIONS!!!!




Most kids in US schools don't see the point of going to school, they have better things to do with their life like watch TV, surf the web (guilty here) and play games. The teachers make no effort to intruige the students, their interest is to give the material and collect a paycheck at the end of the day. The subjects are foriegn and unrelated to the daily lives. "why should we care about the civil war? Racism is no longer an issue."
Science is still held as a "Geeky" subject, those that enjoy it suffer the guise of anti-socialism, although science has made all our lives easier. As a strong science advocate I find this mode of thinking strongly outdated. Albert Einstein is still celebrated as a popular figure. "what does it matter if we learn creation or evolution in schools? It's all the same"

So what is the solution? Some say learning should be fun. Kids should enjoy going to school and learning new things. Indeed this would help a lot, as kids will always gravitate towards what they enjoy doing. But first we must look at how things are being tought, motivating is only second step.
We must start off by refiging our long outdated take on education. Psychology sciences have proven time and again that the way we teach is not the way our brains are hardwired to learn. The typical take on study is to take a list of facts and memorize them.
Memorize these words! 'Steak', 'exclusive', 'biosincrocity' and 'deja vu'
You'll have to read them a few times to remember them for more then a minute. But now try this- 'orange', 'banana', 'grapefruit', 'cherry', 'apple' and 'watermelon'
I just gave you a longer list, but after reading the second list only once you would probably recall most of the items. Why is this?

Untill now educaters regarded our brain as a computer. You put in a set of comands and then any time later we can recall them in the same order they were put in. This is obviously not the case with humans. No normal person can remember everything in a chronological order, it would take a savant to remember the lists of things we try to remember in exactly the way we need to.
Our memories work more like maps. we go from one point to another, every memory leads to the next. In the first list I gave above you could not draw any map with the words, there was no relation between the words, thus you had to force them together. With the second list the map came naturally, all the words are names of fruit, thus memory was extremly easy.
Knowing this we can now revolutionize the education system! Math becomes a easy, history a game. All the other subjects should be tought accordingly, not as logical lists but as emotional and understandable maps.

Step one I said was revolution. The second step, and the importent one really, is motivation. We need to motivate the younger generation, and the media is not helping. We need to turn going to school into a lifetime experience, not a mandatory chore we took growing up. Instead of the future generation growing up to hate learning like we did they should like it, LOVE IT! Live it and understand it. Because you can never force someone to do something hey don't want to do, but you can make them want to do it.

And as a closing bonus, here is somemore footage that will show just how stupid some Americans really are: