There was no “Vision” of what the Inet could be used for ~ and by whom ~ beyond that. Initially, it was conceived totally as a means to facilitate communications in government and scientific research, and that’s about it.

I don’t think anybody involved in the earliest stages of the development of the Internet had any idea whatsoever about what it could and ultimately would become. I agree, Dennis, that the Internet certainly ranks right up there with the printing press, telescope and microscope, steam engine, electricity for lights and motors and then radio, television, and radar, x-ray, anesthesia, and antibiotics and vaccines, among other greatest inventions ever, at least at their time.īut i’m not sure we put our minds to creating the Internet in quite the same way that we put our minds to getting to the Moon.

I’m trying to stay sober but I end up drunk I’m running out of water so I better prime the pump There’s kids all picking at the garbage dump Put my feet up on the couch and lock all the doorsįracking deep for oil but there’s nothing in the sump Just goes to show you don’t get what you paid forīowing to the rich and you worry ’bout the poor We lost all that treasure in an overseas war I had a dream last night I was piloting a planeĪnd all the passengers were drunk and insane Jeff, here is some Stones lyrics for you today my man! If we seek to understand the Moon in its entirety, we must see all its sides - especially its most battered one. And that “one side” is typically the one most favorable to America, the brightest one, the least cratered one, even the romantic one. Rather, just as it’s an incomplete picture to see the Moon from only one side and perspective, so too is it a limiting experience to see America from only one side. My point here is not to focus exclusively on the dark side of America. These men and women (and many others) sought to shine a probing light on some of the darker sides of American behavior, and you won’t be surprised to learn that they suffered for it. Or how about an anarchist like Emma Goldman. And an outspoken Catholic worker by the name of Dorothy Day. And let’s throw an Aussie in there too: Julian Assange. Who are some of these “astronomers” who seek to show us America in a new light? I’d like to mention a few names here: Daniel Ellsberg, Daniel Hale, John Kiriakou, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden. (I think I’m right here, based upon my own reading on our solar system, which I admit was many, many moons ago.)Ĭan we also see the dark side of other objects? See the familiar in strikingly unfamiliar ways? How about America? It’s not easy, because those who try to help us to see are often punished for their probing in darker places. Without a large Moon near us, life on Earth may have proved more precarious, with more mass extinctions due to asteroid strikes. In a sense, the Moon acts as a shield for the Earth, with some asteroids getting funneled into its gravitational well and striking its surface rather than possibly colliding with the Earth.

Here we see the battered side of the Moon. I love seeing familiar objects in unfamiliar ways. And that dark side presents us with a whole new idea of the Moon, as so: A truly captivating vision of the dark side of the Moon, courtesy of NASA Until the beginning of the space age, we never saw its dark side. It has so many meanings in our lives, our history, our folklore and myths. The Moon is the brightest object in the night sky.

Dark side of the moom