How the Internet Breaks Down Barriers....

Here's a short story which shows the incredible potential the internet really has to build bridges between people....

Several years ago, I used to play this online text-only game.... It's known as a MUD, a "Multi-User Dungeon." However, this particular MUD is kind of interesting, because its creators have given it a basic economy.... That is, you can experiment with business, in a very simple way, in the particular MUD.... (You can find out more at www.shattered.org , or www.shattered.org/economy.htm for more about the economy....)

Anyway, it was an interesting world, with real people playing various "characters." It was such that you could do chattel trading, run businesses and buy and sell them at an auction, do advertising....

This was a non-standard way to play the MUD, but it was interesting that this approach was possible.... (I actually learned about this approach from my brother Thomas, who discovered it for himself....)

But that's all besides the point....

There was another player who I befriended in this online world.... He went by the name Llewellyn.... We did a few "adventures" together....

One day, I spoke with him a bit further, and he told me that in fact, he was blind. He had a speech synthesizer attached to his computer, which read out the words on the screen to him. So he'd type in his commands, and his speech synthesizer would read out the text to him....

In our little online world, things like this made no difference.... We were all equals there....

And that's the point.... As we all know, the internet enables many people to break down barriers. There are barriers of disability, barriers of race, barriers of many other types too....

But the internet is an amazing tool which helps people to break these barriers down....

I think it is an amazing thought, and it shows that what we are dealing with is not only whiz-bang technology, but something that can really make a huge difference in many people's lives....

Just some food for thought!

Dien