Remember the days when people used to think that whatever was on TV was true? People used to say "I saw it on TV" and if the source was the news or the discovery channel the validity of the information was guaranteed and, by the same token, the person that quoted those channels differentiated from the majority who watches sports or soap operas (I belong to the latter majority). Well, I don´t think this social differentiation is over, but now the computer (meaning not only the internet) is the source of truth.
I´ve been working on a report on gender equity in education based on numerous visits to the northern zone institutes of El Salvador. What I hear is different from what I find in my computer (I mean reports that I´ve been provided with, raw data and the internet). It is different not in that it is opposite. It is different in that it has a voice. I sometimes question why do I have to validate that voice with a number or a source is the voice itself. But reports show that http://www/. is THE SOURCE. Andy Warhol predicted everyone´s 10 minutes of fame (I forgot the exact number of muinutes) and fame is now the norm. His next prediction would have been everyones voice preceded by http://www/. (you´ll probably have to pay to add this feature and maybe if you don't get it, you might loose connection). For the poor, the voice will be recorded in a pdf equivalent file that cannot be modified once recorded (after all adobe reader is free).
I´ll stop playing futurology and finish this entry referring to the power of the infamous FARC computer that was found in Ecuador and that has ALL the information about the "terrorist network" or the "lefty network" (depends which http://www/. is your source). As it happens, the FMLN (the alternative to ARENA, the Salvadorean official political party, in power for over 18 years - or the pre and post war party) is connected with FARC. I am not sure who is right, who is wrong, what the connection means, or where the truth lies. What I am simply questionning is the power of the computer or a computer as a source of truth. What if instead of focusing who is related to whom (which reminds me of my dad's fascination with genealogy) we focus on what truly is at stake.
Meanwhile, outside the computer, reality happens. I think we still believe there is one and only one truth. But truth is multiple and sometimes minimal. Sometimes is as simple as watching a chicken walking through your urban neighbourhood reminding you that within the urban there is the rural (rurban).
