Daily 3

Will a "hypertext" world make us more accepting of cyclic history?

- Ira Socol, Michigan State University

      A hypertext world would make us, the majority of the human population, more accepting of cyclic history. Hypertext means text that is displayed on an electronic device, especially a computer. When a person uses the mouse to click from one website to another or to search something on Google, there is no specific beginning or end. In a book, there is a clear beginning that has a clear end. It never goes in a cycle. On the internet, there are so many people around the world involved on social networks and other websites. If one person viewed a video on YouTube and then wrote a comment about it and then sent it to a friend that has never seen it, then the friend would watch the video, write another comment, and send it to his or her friend. This is an example of the cyclic history that is always occurring and repeating itself. Another example is that when you view something you can go back and then go forward. When you download a program or music, the computer downloads, the person listens or watches, and then you download again in the same process. People could accept the idea of cyclic history in the form of the Internet. The hypertext world is more of a cyclic type of history, rather than a linear, vortex, or Hegelian type of history. Cyclic history is sometimes hard to find, but the example of the internet, downloading music, and the process of using a computer explains cyclic history. If people put the concept of cyclic history to the concept of the Internet and how it works, then we could be much more accepting of history in the form of a cycle.