the future is now! part ii

By Todd Stadler · Tuesday, May 7, 2002 9:22am

Another example of life in the Internet Age occurred while I was reading CNN today.

I had been following the story of the mailbox bomber ever since I read his Fight-Club-inspired screed concerning fear, death, and, of course, government control.

So when I read on CNN.com this afternoon that the FBI had issued an all-points bulletin for one Luke John Helder, I did what came naturally to me, I searched for his name using Google.

I was somewhat surprised to find that there was only one page that matched his name, that of a Minnesota band called Apathy. That page links to another Apathy page (which is down as the ISP deals with the server load). And the latter page links to the band's MP3.com site, complete with angsty tunes about conformity and such.

As details were revealed throughout the day about Mr. Helder, it quickly became apparent that the singer in this band was, in fact, the same as the guy the FBI wanted - same state, same college, and same politics.

What's my point? Well, I was struck by my ability to find out something about this now-famous character before the news media reported it (CNN's page on the story now mentions the band Apathy). And not just to find out that he was in a band, but to listen to the band's songs. All within a matter of minutes of his name being released on CNN.

That may not be useful information, but it's still interesting. You know, I think that sentence pretty much sums up the Internet. Maybe not useful, but interesting.

And while my car may not fold up into a briefcase yet, I still get the suspicion that the times, they are a-changing.