I Have Become An "Intelligent Agent"
By AdamShand
Remember back in the early ninties when the killer app was going to be programs which went out to gather information for you? They would go out, harvest information from the net and bring it down to you in a consise form? Well they never caught on because they all sucked, hard.
Well that's what I've become, I harvest information and disseminate it to others. I like to think I'm good at it. My brain has always been good at gathering small pieces of information and slowly putting them together into a cohesive whole.
I was always proud that I got 1000's of emails a day, 100's that I cared about and actually read and digested and my inbox was always under a page in pine. Friends marveled and women swooned, I sent more email then god. I was an anal retentive information junkie, everything filed away in it's right folder or directory so I could find it later. I was ontop of my shit. When I fell behind it was always temporary, I was on top of it but there weren't enough hours in the day or other responsibilities were more pressing.
I've now reached saturation. No longer is the problem time or other responsibilities. I am now officially incapable of processing enough information to keep up with all the things that interest me. There is so much to know, to understand, to spread and finally and most importantly ... to do.
It's not made any easier by my growing interest in politics, I have some pretty strong opinions but I feel that I don't know enough to argue them coherantly. I'm always waiting for someone who knows their shit better then me to call me on it and make me look like a fool. Yet I still have my opinions and my gut tells me that I'm right, and I learned long ago to trust my instincts, they've let me down far less often then my head.
I believe that globalism is wrong. I believe that DiversityIsGood, even beautiful. I believe that corporations bring nothing to the table that benefits society as a whole. I believe that communities, from your local neighborhood to linux user groups and womens shelters, are what make a society strong. I believe that capitalism is destroying our environment. I believe that greed is universal. I believe that anarchy is perfect, and impossible. I believe that we are cursed to live in interesting times ...
I am so angry at the United States for the way it's handling the "WarOnTerrorism" that I can't even vocalize it other then to email you with things that other people write. At the same time I feel complicit for living here and helpless about not being able to change everything. I want to leave, get the fuck out of this shithole that calls itself "the land of the free and the home of the brave" as we bomb starving people and call it "necessary". I feel guilty for wanting to leave, feel like a coward for not standing up for what I believe in and trying to change something.
I want to stand on a street corner and scream obscenities and truth at everything that represents power in this world until someone notices and locks me up for being dangerous.
Because then I won't have to feel guilty anymore for not doing anything to make it right.