World Shift Anomaly

In my early days as browser guy, I would hear secretaries saying stuff like, "...oh...it's on NetEscape" You could tell she didn't know the had said it wrong.

It goes without saying the web is a game-changer. as easy as it is to use, everyone had to learn at least something to use it. Since it's spread over the world like wildfire, a graph of intelligence of the species would have to show an eye-catching, rarely seen jump during a really short time, say 1995-2005.

When you think about it, this hasn't really happened often; one would expect the rest of the graph mostly showing a more random lazy long-term pattern on this chart, interspersed with these discontinuities probably based on some environmental challenge or change.

In far, I'd expect that more of these bumps were reactive, like "Uh oh it's getting colder...", than proactive, like the integration of the web into world culture.

The net alone has had such a profound effect on world culture that it probably induced people world-wide to seek knowledge about it, then from it, which they gained perhaps 2 pts on their respective standard IQ tests just from becoming involved in the net. There's a lot to be said about this: the psychology of it is fascinating, and it's all based on the strangely universal need to communicate.

What is yet to come as a consequence of this profound shift in the outlook of billions of people all at once?

Trippy.