Why are we so excited about the internet?

What exactly is it that gets us all so excited about the Internet?

As well as being a global network of networks, the Internet is a global network of people, ideas and information. The Net is as interesting and exciting as the people, organisations, companies, governments and weirdoes that are connected to it.

There is another thing that's exciting about the Internet. Like love and life, the Net is what you make it. If you don't like what's happening on one part of the network, you can build yourself a whole new cybercity, appoint yourself as mayor and run it exactly as you want.

The Internet enables you to do a lot of things simultaneously. You can read the latest copy of your favourite newspaper while planning your night's TV viewing and ordering some cheap CDs from an American discount disc store.

You can send e-mail to someone you've never met before ... Some people have "met" over the Internet and got married.

The first web browsers only supported simple texts and images, but now a multitude of multimedia plug-ins enables webpages to sing and dance.

From PC banking to online shopping and chats with celebrities, the Internet is already changing our lives. The arrival of digital TV promises even more exciting things.

WE MAY HAVE NO CHOICE

We've climbed the highest mountains, conquered the deepest oceans and crossed the widest deserts. It seems there's little left for us to see on this planet. So what's next?

Space, of course. The idea of living on a space station or in a lunar city may sound like science fiction, but a hundred years ago no one even heard of an aeroplane — yet today more than 500 million people a year travel by air.

We may have no choice, in any case.

The world's population is growing at a rate of 97 million a year. It means that by the middle of the century there will so many people on our planet that if everyone in India jumped up and down at the same time, it would cause a tidal wave big enough to cover Europe.

Greenpeace warns that if we continue to burn fossil fuels at the same rate as we do today, global warming will reach catastrophic levels. They predict sinking continents and severe drought. Add to that the problems caused by hunger, disease, war and natural disasters, and you will see why space agencies across the globe are pouring millions of dollars into space research.

The first pieces of the International Space Station have been launched — a giant project which will allow scientists to carry out ground-breaking research in technology and medicine and see just how long people can live in space.

So sometime in this century we might very well see the emergence of a space generation — that means humans born and raised somewhere other than Earth.

ARTHUR CLARKE PREDICTS

Space travel has inspired thousands of science fiction writers. Here is what Arthur Clarke, many of whose predictions have come true, writes about space.

I think I became interested in space through the early science fiction magazines.

And I can still vividly remember some of those bright covers. That was in 1930 I think I saw my first. And it wasn't until quite some time later — a few years — that I came across a book whichreally changed my life. It was called The Conquest of Space. And that was the first book on the subject which took it seriously.

And I then realised: this could be for real. And from then on, of course, I was hooked.

Until the Russians put up Sputnik 1, in 1957,1 suppose 90 per cent of the public thought it was all nonsense. But after Sputnik people realised that the space age had started.

But nobody — not even us enthusiastic space cadets — realised that things would happen as quickly as they have.

It was back in 1945 that I wrote the paper suggesting that satellites could be used for communication. So I'm rather proud of that. Though sometimes, when I see some of the things that come down from satellites, I feel a certain kinship with the great Dr Frankenstein.

After the war I became interested in space stations.

The idea which I'm most interested in today — and which I wrote a novel about, The Phantoms of Paradise, is the Space Elevator. The idea of building an elevator from the Earth's surface right up to the stationary orbit, twenty-six thousand miles above, seems fantastic. But it's theoreticallypossible. The material that can make it possible is Buckminster Fullerine, the C60 molecule — which is maybe a hundred times stronger than steel in some of its forms.

And here's a strange thing. Bucky Fuller was a good friend. When I recorded The Phantoms of Paradise, he drew a picture of the Space Elevator. Yet Bucky never lived to see the discovery of thematerial named after him — which will, I think, make the Space Elevator possible.

THE EARTH IS OUR HOME

The Earth is our home. What sort of home it is depends on how we treat it, just as the houses we live in depend on how we take care of them.

Do you like to fish or swim? Do you like to walk through the woods? Do you like to breathe fresh air? Or to watch birds and hear them sing?

If you do, we'll have to treat our Earth home in a different way. Why? Because we are making lakes and rivers too dirty for fish to live in or for people to swim in.

Because we're cutting down our forests too fast, we are spoiling the nature.

Because we're making so much smoke, dirty air often hides the sky and even nearby things. The dirty air makes it hard for us to breathe, and it can cause illness, and even death.

Because we're putting so much poison on the things birds eat, they are finding it hard to live.

Have you seen smoke pouring out of tall factory chimneys? Have you smelled the gas fumes from the back of a bus? Have you noticed the smoke from a jet plane taking off?

All of these things make the air dirty — they pollute it. In crowded cities thousands of automobiles and factories may add tons of poison to the atmosphere each day.

Have you wondered where the sewage from one house, many houses, a big city goes? It pollutes rivers and lakes and may even make them die. Fish can't live in them, and you can't swim in them.

Have you wondered where the wood for houses comes from? And the paper for books and newspapers? From our forests. And what does the land look like when the trees are gone?

Have you thought where the poison goes that we spray on gardens and grass to kill insects and weeds? Onto the things the birds eat, making it hard for them to live and share with us their beautiful colours and songs.

Have you seen piles of old cars and old refrigerators? Not very nice to look at, are they? Have you seen piles of old boxes, glass jars, and cans? Not very beautiful, are they?

If we don't do anything about this spoiling of the world around us — its air, its water, its land, and its life — our lives are not going to be so nice. But there is much that we can do.

Factories can clean their smoke. Cars and planes can be made so that their fumes do not add to the pollution.

The dirty water from factories can be made clean. Sewage, too, can be changed so that water is clean enough to use again. Fish can live again, and you can swim again in oceans, seas, rivers, and lakes.

The mountains can still be covered with forests if the cutting of trees is done with care. We must plant again where we have cut. And we can have enough wood for houses and paper for books.

There is no need to throw away things we do not want or cannot use any more. We can change many things back into what they were made of, and use them again. Old newspapers can become new paper. Old glass jars can be turned into new glass. Old iron can help to make new cars and refrigerators.

We can also learn not to litter. We all know the sign: DO NOT LITTER. But not everyone does what the sign says.

For a long time, people have used their Earth home without thinking of what was happening to it. Now we see that we must treat it better if it is to be a nice home. It can be.

(from Speak Out, abridged)