Amateurism
Ben Franklin was the ultimate amateur scientist:
“It wasn't just his extraordinary work that he did in electricity. He was also the first person, for instance, to understand that weather just didn't happen locally, that a storm that you experience today might be a hundred miles over tomorrow, and he was the first person, using his position as postmaster general, to track a hurricane going up through the colonies. He was the first person to study the sociology of insects. He was the first person to analyze the teeth of a mastodon and figure out that the climate in Siberia, where the mastodon had been found, must have changed, so that meant that climate was not something that could be relied on as being constant all over the world.”
Amateur musicians flock to concerts; amateur radio enthusiasts keep plugging along; amateur astronomers add to our knowledge of the universe. The interactive, networked screen makes it easier for all of these amateurs to find one another — joined by the internet as well as by their common interests. The net can be used to create intellectual common areas of all kinds, built by gift. Code is love as well as law.
Yet another reason why Ben Franklin would have loved the internet. Happy Valentines Day.
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