Every now and then, Mark Cuban writes a blog post that seems to say that there are no more revolutionary uses for the Internet, uses that will change the way we live and create Google-sized fortunes.
His latest effort starts with the maxim that “when a man has a hammer, everything looks like a nail” and goes on to explain how that may affect our thinking about the Internet.
From Education to Healthcare to Entertainment to Sports to Security to Corporate everything and just about anything and everything else. If Robitussin cant cure it, the Internet will. Of course the internet was not the first cure all for the worlds ills. The list is long. Im sure for the longest time fire was the cure all, but even in more modern times there is an exciting list.
If Cuban is arguing that there’s nothing magic about the Internet that will let some clever programmer perfect education, health care and the rest with a simple Web site, then I think most people would agree.
If he’s arguing that the Internet won’t play a huge role in enabling technologies that will greatly improve all these things (and many others), then he’s either being silly to provoke people like me or he’s never recovered mentally from the Mavs’ loss in the NBA Finals.
Nearly every human activity can be improved if people and machines have access to better information and the Internet is — more and more — how people will share information.
Looking back at the areas Cuban mentions, the uses of more knowledge are pretty obvious.
In education, computerized systems that track of how every student does on every test, quiz and homework assignment make it easier for teachers and parents to spot problems early and nip them in the bud. Guess how those systems allow people to share that information. Yes, online.
In health care, electronic medical records that are shared over the Internet provide doctors with more information about their patients and help them make better diagnoses.
As for crime, stopping it is a pure information problem.
It’s simply a matter of knowing who did what, tracking them down and locking them up. Cameras that send information over the Internet will let cops see the crime, identify the robbers and track them down.
If you want to know what to expect, watch Minority Report, which actually took great care to create realistic technology (aside from telling the future, of course).
Society has just begun to consider how it can improve life by sharing information over the Internet.
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