Recently, South Korean gamers hare teamed up to kill Chinese gamers in a large virtual world.
Meanwhile, the real world seems to be hurling itself into an unstable state, and the internet is still harolded as a potentially great democratizing and equalizing force that will somehow help to solve this mess. Indeed, the net is often cited as a primary factor behind the gradual–albeit bumpy–opening of China’s society. Sure, there are hate sites out there, admit Internet-as-Freedom zealots, but the excitement behind events like WikiMania always seems to drown out what negativism exists. While the idealistic side of me would love to believe that great access to information and idea for all people will inevitably lead to global peace and prosperity, at times the technology serves only to magnify how far we still have to go as a global society.
My basic feeling is that even if all information is available to all people at all times, individuals will still tend to seek out others whose points of view and prejudices are already similar to their own.
