Indeed, that we would be so nimble in this web of information is a surprise. Traditional information structures, from books to films, tend to be linear. Humans also have some comfort with hierarchical shaped information spaces such as automated touch-tone answering services. But the heterarchical, free-form linking of the Web at first looked to be difficult to navigate. There now appears to be a faint pattern here.
Big things tend to come from little changes that have a big multiplier.
The advance of technology is generally not by major stair steps. Instead, it is frequently the small but consistent perturbations to a large number of machines, or to a large number of people, that have the greatest and often least expected consequence. The overlook on Highway 36 continues to offer a changing series of perspectives to those that pause there. Even if the outcomes are different than we anticipate, we certainly profit by the mere act of reflection.