Posthuman Blues

The "blogging" phenomenon was on NPR this morning. It's interesting how weblogs are routinely presented as a novel, subversive medium. I suppose they are, in a sense, but are they really the forerunners of the next communications revolution? I think the potential is there. It's too early to tell whether blogs will evolve into a social/cultural force to be reckoned with.

Audio-blogging is presently in vogue. I can imagine the infosphere forty years from now, when bloggers have wireless devices grafted directly into their brains. Instead of sharing sound clips, imagine sharing dreams or flashes of dizzy intuition.

I don't think the concept of an electronic "hive-mind" is necessarily Marxist or depersonalizing. In fact, effortless access to consenting minds (human and otherwise) just might be the catalyst we need to shrug off our current geocentric consciousness. The larger the brain, the vaster the frontier. And new frontiers will spawn new and different varieties of minds.