Particularly the Spaceship Earth ride.
Now you may not know it by that name, most people don't. The accurately call it something like, "The Golf Ball" or "The Big Ball" ride. Which is pretty much what everyone on the planet knows it as but if you've ridden the ride as many times as I have you know it as Spaceship Earth.
For those that have been, have never been or haven't been in a long time... please allow me to describe the experience and how this relates to ActiveRain and blogging.
The geodesic dome is huge. There is a database of facts on
Wikipedia here for some technical background. But for me, the stats pale in comparison to the effect of the ride inside the dome.
Once inside the dome (I'm not bringing up the lines issue) you board your 'time machine'. A large two-person cart that goes in a continuous loop that you step into from a revolving 'moving sidewalk'. Blue, plastic, speakers set into the headrests, sliding doors - all this and then Jeremy Irons begins his narrative only inches from your ears.
The 'time machines' go into the darkness, taking you back in time to the dawn of man. When communication was no more than gestures, nodding, the barring of teeth, grunting and a lot of on-the-job training.
All of this is depicted on the walls. Pictures, animatronics people repeating the same actions for every car. Smells of the time, the heat of the desert, the cold of space.
Your 'time machine' rolls along a leisurely pace as you see a form of speech slowly make it's way into the skills of man, and then stories, lessons, plays, art and books. You see the Romans, the Arabs, the Dark Ages and then you move a few hundred years ahead into printing presses. Then we begin the truly exciting journey of the spreading of knowledge via books and news papers on a grand scale. Then radio, then TV.
All the while you're slowly developing a true sense of the progress that has been made in previous century. From having to hand copy each newly delivered speech from the rulers of the time, to brushing ink onto wooden block letters, to radio waves, to pretty black and white then color images on a screen, to - well this is where Mr. Arko's blog comes in - to blogging and beyond.
Once the ride catches up to semi-modern times I always get the sense of anticipation. That if I can just sit still long enough somehow, just around the corner Disney is going to show me the latest Blackberry, the newest headgear/sunglasses/ipod/virtual gaming unit.
Well, sorta. The ride continues into the future of communication, where we might be headed. With the communication becoming easier, broader and even more critical. With languages being broken down electronically and then recomputed to your own language for complete understanding and exchange. You see images and scenes of on-air conversations with children across the world from one another. From one country to another video phones relay medical information during surgeries.
And then we leave the planet. We are shown what communication could be in the not so far off future, with man on different planets. Neon tubes and colorful lights zip about you representing the data streaming out into space. The ultra modem cities with it's technological efficiency presents maybe a goal, an idea, a model of what we could be.
But it all goes back to communication. Every scene you see in the ride further details and displays the importance and the necessity of that one basic skill to explain yourself, to ask questions, to understand.
That's what I got from Mr. Arko's post. Yes, there are business elements that can be gleaned from the entry and valid ones at that. But the one underlying fact of what we all do as bloggers and as people is communicate. Some of us are good at it, some aren't and some (me) are learning to be better everyday. Because at the end of the day, and the ride for that matter, it comes down to the effectiveness of your communications among the others of our species.
Christopher Farrell
Reading the post 
;)
;)
your links toTony ad his post don't seem to work