“Then came the Connect. Before that was the Internet, the World Wide Web, the wobbly-wobbly-wobbly I always called it. Hahahaha!” The Professor laughed at his own words.
“But the Internet had little privacy. People were being watched and monitored, sometimes for marketing reasons, sometimes much worse. Most people had no idea they were being watched, or how easy it was to track what they were doing. It was the undoing of a few crooks and criminals, but it also invaded the lives of the innocent. And the Internet was wide open to fraud, theft and attacks.
“Then along came the Connect. It was private, anonymous and secure. You know, they offered huge prize money for anyone who could break into it. Thousands tried to hack their way in, hahahaha, even had a go myself. It was the challenge of a lifetime to a lot of techno heads, but they all failed. Molly thinks it was because the guardian angels looked after it, nothing to do with technology, bless her heart. But you never know. You’ve got to think twice about some of that gal’s theories.”
“She is pretty amazing. Where does she get those ideas from? Some sound like she channeled them straight out of the galaxy,” said Jonathan with a grin.
“You know you could be right on that, the way that gal seems to know things, hahahaha,” he said and took a gulp of beer.
“But the Connect became much more than the old Internet. It became a sort of technological collective unconscious. As people switched over, they saw it in a different way to the old wobbly-wobbly-wobbly. It was as if they passed through a doorway into an electronic spiritual realm. Great care was taken by everyone with any information and conversations. The wobbly-wobbly-wobbly had become a dumping area for complaining and nasty things. There were unkind photographs, judgments about people and cultures, fearmongering, miserable news stories. But when anyone switched on the Connect, it displayed the word THINK. It was an acronym for Thoughtful, Honest, Intelligent, Necessary, and Kind. There was a new etiquette about it all and it was a fresh start.
“All Connect users pledged to keep it a safe and wholesome place for all. If you broke that pledge you only deceived yourself. And it worked. It was self-controlling, and it was free of things like pornography, bullying, cruelty, humiliation and racism. The Connect was liberated from control, moderators or filters because it was free of anything that had to be controlled. Everyone was reminded to THINK.
“The founders said the Connect represented our thoughts and energies, and we needed to make sure we kept these positive and helpful. Our destructive thoughts were responsible for creating destructive energy and events in the world. As in the one, so in the whole they used to say. And the Connect was a place to start practicing, electronically.
“We have never found out who put the Connect out there. There are occasional broadcasts and updates, but nobody knows where they come from. You can imagine what Molly says about that one.” Jonathan smiled and nodded in agreement, imagining what the theory would be.