What was in the water in 1955?
That year both Steve Jobs, the Apple co-founder, and Bill Gates, of Microsoft were born. I would venture to guess that everyone reading this knows about both of those men.
But Tim Berners-Lee was also born in 1955, not in the US but in England. Who is Mr. Berners-Lee? None other than the inventor of the world wide web.
I have been reading a book just published by Berners-Lee entitled This is for Everyone. It is a memoir of his life and how the web came to be, as well as a canary in the coal mine about where this technology, which is used in more than 70% of the world, is heading.
Berners-Lee did not invent the internet. This was first born out of earlier research by the United States Department of Defense in 1969 as a way of computers being able to link up together. It was cumbersome and open only to scientists, researchers and the military. It wasn’t until 20 years later that Berners-Lee, working for a company called CERN that he discovered a way to enable every computer “on-line” to automatically communicate with each other. He created websites and hyperlinks, things that even our kindergarten students have now mastered.
That’s as technical as I am going to get. What is fascinating about Berners-Lee is his remarkable life.
Both of his parents were electrical engineers in England, and both worked with very early versions of computers. They knew Alan Turing who is acknowledged as the father of this relatively new technology. His Turing Machine helped break the code of the Nazis in World War II. Berners-Lee had good genes for accomplishing what he has!
But nature competes with nurture in the development of young minds, which is important for teachers and parents to remember with our own children. Berner-Lee said that rather than television being the center of the home it was a wall of books in his living room. He also said that contrary to the notion that those who master computer technology spend all their time on the screen or gaming devices, he and his family spent every opportunity to camp and enjoy nature in every season.
He also cites excellent teachers during his secondary school years who inspiring him, particularly in mathematics. They prepared him for his entrance tests to University to be sure, but he says that they refused to teach to the test and stretched him way beyond what he was expected to know.
Later in life, when he developed the technology which we now use on our computers, our phones, our television sets and every other linked device we own he had an opportunity to patent them. He had the chance to be every bit as wealthy as Jobs or Gates. Instead, he made the decision to make the web free and open to the whole world. Remarkable.
However, as of this fall, when he completed this book, he acknowledged the misuse of the web, with its evil and immoral sites, its potential for addictiveness and its ability to share our personal information with anyone. He sees great promise in AI but worries as well that it can be equally an opportunity for great good or great destruction.
Isn’t this what we parents, grandparents and teachers grapple with every day? How do we use technology to make our lives better without making them completely dependent on internet access? How do we foster imagination and creativity without letting chat GPT think for us, tell us what is right and wrong, write our papers for us?
Finally, and this is the beauty of teaching in a school where we try each and every day to share our halls and our hearts with Jesus Christ, we recognize that no matter how large technology looms in our lives, it is but a stick making marks in the sand compared to the power of God who created heaven and earth and made each one of us, a unique and individual child fashioned in His image.
Yes, at OLP we use computers and smart boards. But we also pray and discuss God in our classes and encounter the real presence of Christ each week in the Eucharist. And He is also free and open to all. Happy Catholic Schools Week!
Jim Silcott