Resistance is Futile!

Here I am at beautiful Sea-Tac International Airport getting ready to board a red eye Delta flight to Atlanta. Since Connexion isn’t yet on domestic flights, I will have to do without the Web for five whole hours.

“Lucky it’s a red eye,” I begin to tell myself. “I can sleep the whole way. I probably won’t even notice the lack of access. I can quit any time I want.”

That’s the denial talking. It’s one of the first signs you’re an addict. And these days, it’s harder than ever to be addicted to the Web.

Until Connexion came along and showed me that Internet access on an airplane is possible, I believed that the Web was one of those things you had to do without when traveling. Yes, it was a hardship. Yes, I felt myself beginning to get jittery after my iPod and laptop batteries died. Yes, I started my search for the nearest Ethernet port the second the plane’s wheels hit tarmac. But I somehow I managed to cope with my temporary loss of connection.

Now it’s a whole other story. And as I prepare to take my first flight since I became aware of the wonders of midair WiFi, I’m not sure how I’ll deal.

At the risk of pegging myself as a huge Trekkie to the entire blogosphere, I can say that this whole experience has given me deeper insight into the plight of Seven of Nine - the buxom Borg from Star Trek: Voyager.

For the sake of you non-Trekkies out there, I’ll explain briefly. The Borg are a collective consciousness of humanoid cyborgs. They travel the galaxy assimilating new alien races in a never-ending search for perfection. And after being separated from the Borg collective consciousness, Seven experienced feelings of anxiety, pain, loneliness, rage and a general sense of foreboding. It’s a common symptom that all Borg experience when severed from the hive mind.

Maybe, like Seven, I’ve been assimilated into the great collective consciousness that we call the Web. After all, I’m here uploading the contents of my brain for the entire blogosphere to see. You can read my mind, archive my thoughts, download my memories. Long after I am gone, it is likely that my postings will linger on somewhere in the electronic universe.

Of course the Web is made by an ever-growing group of individual humans - most of whom have good intentions. The Borg, on the other hand, are evil. They destroy and assimilate everything in their path. I’m not really a drone. But I do have one very important thing in common with them. Like any good Borg, I’m very happy to be in the collective.