In business as well as personal online communication, we are responsible for creating a context that enables our words to vibrate with obvious meaning. The digital image at which you are looking is a simulation of printed text, which simulated written words, which simulated spoken words. Reading silently to ourselves is a relatively late practice. The only real words were spoken words. Some think spoken words are a specialized kind of gesture.
Gestures are feelings felt so strongly they make the whole body vibrate like a violin.
We human beings are nothing but organized systems of energy and information. That's what computers are too. The words on your screen are merely the echo of a gesture, feelings felt so strongly they show up and glow through the words. Believing is seeing. Islands in the Clickstream is a weekly column written by Richard Thieme exploring social and cultural dimensions of computer technology.