HIGHLAND, UT | 7 April 2008 | Scientists have found a way to make this great big world of ours much smaller: “The Grid” as they are calling it is a device which makes the quick speeds of broadband Internet communication pale in comparison. Jonathan Leake, science editor of British Times Online, reported Sunday that “the grid” could transmit information upwards of 10,000 times faster than current broadband technology, sending a “the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.” Leake also reported that this new technology could allow a home user to download a full-length movie in five seconds rather than the usual three hours. This, in effect brings people of the world much closer than they have ever been. This has great meaning for businesses and individuals the world over.

Scientists are still toying with this new technology and expect to test out its abilities later this year and have it available for academic use on campuses around the world this fall.

Key Points

• For centuries, the world had been a slow place to exchange. Natural boundaries and confusing languages kept the people from meeting with one another in any degree of rapidity so any foreign exchange was truly a delicacy or precious commodity. Caravans usually traveled by camel, mule or horse could only bring so many of those commodities at a time and usually took months or even years to traverse the globe.
• Ships made travel a little better but had to circumnavigate around large masses of land in order to reach their respective ports. This, of course, was the motivation for Columbus to push westward at the close of the 15th Century hoping to enter the back door of the Indies and to create a route much faster than that of rounding the Cape of Good Hope in Southern Africa.
• The latest century saw the advent of mass production and motorized vehicles, on the ground and in the air. These made world travel an absolute reality. Goods could be shipped across the globe in the matter of a few days. This brought people together in ways previously unheard of and allowed exchange to occur at much quicker and more frequent rates. Thus, prosperity skyrocketed (literally?) far beyond levels the medieval kings could ever have conceived.
• Still, printed information in books and magazines lagged. Even television and radio were limited in their ability to transmit enough information to truly increase human exchange.
• The Internet of the 1990s increased the volume of information that could be transmitted across the wires. Yet, to some, even this technology is too slow. Thus we see the advent of “the grid,” an ultra-high-tech communications device, the latest development from those who invented the internet.
• This is good news for those looking to communicate quicker. Production can increase at blinding speeds. Exchange can take place at paces much quicker than ever before imagined.

Conclusion

The 13 Principles of Prosperity™ enumerate eternal laws that govern wealth on this planet. Paramount among them, “People are assets” teaches us that in order for man to obtain wealth, he must learn to create value for other human beings rather than place value in stuff over the value of other people. Akin to this is the fact that “Exchange creates wealth.” A person may have all the stuff in the world, but if he does not share that stuff with his fellowman, he and the stuff soon wither to nothingness. The medieval kings of Europe are perhaps the prime example of such disintegration of wealth and prosperity. Their castles, designed to protect their stuff from invading forces, effectually cut them off from nearly any interaction with others. Is it any wonder that many of these monarchs ended up mad, such as the famous Ludwig of Germany?

Action Items

1. Take a speed reading course that will enable you to increase your own rate of information gathering.
2. Reflect on your own ability to create value and exchange with others, including your unique abilities, personal strengths, your definite chief aim, and other Human Life Values. How might you be able to use new technologies to interact with more people and thereby benefit from the possibilities of higher paces of exchange?
3. Read the FreeCapitalist Primer and seek for ways to turn your brain on.

MRFC Principles: 8 (4, 5, 8 )

Resources

Leake, Jonathan. “Coming Soon: superfast internet” The Times Online. April 6, 2008

The FreeCapitalist Primer, in print and now available online.