Vague commentary on digital communication referencing Yasser Arafat and Shimon Pérez

82 Are the Androids Dreaming Yet? Yasser Arafat and Shimon Pérez together. This lifeblood of our existence — long-distance communication between human beings — turns out to be amazingly difficult, even with all our clever technology. In recent years the Internet has, in theory, allowed each and every person to communicate freely with any other person on the planet. In some of the most distant parts of the world mobile phones, and projects such as; ‘One Laptop per Child’ are rapidly bringing unlimited communication to all. This communication can be personal, one-to-one, or broadcast: I can talk to people interested in a particular topic directly. As we watch the Arab world democratize, catalyzed by the Internet, there is no question that digital communication has now become a major force in the world. Yet, people don’t communicate over the Internet as much as you would expect; they often use the Internet to set up phone calls during which they arrange meetings! This is odd. We have a fantastic phone system and sophisticated communication technologies; email, video and instant messaging. Yet, we still choose to travel when we want to communicate. On the face of it, there should be no difference between a phone call and a meeting. In principle the same information can be conveyed. Yet when we want to really understand someone, we always go to meet HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015772