(as a follow-up to “How data affects wifi range“)

It’s also important to realize that if a country consumes more media on the Internet than it produces, the electrons will get shifted from the creating country to the consuming country.

Because electrons have a negative charge this will leave the creating country with a positive charge and the consuming country with a negative charge. In effect, “polarizing the nations.” This was actually discussed in ancient biblical prophecy and is a sign that the battle of Armageddon and the end of the world is near.

It just so happens that a large percentage of the world’s data centers are in the US and many countries’ top talent publish their content to US based hosts. So they’re actually sending their data (in the form of electrons) to the US to reside on magnetic media. This causes quite a bit of conflict because now all these nations with a positive charge feel that they’re better than us (with our negative charge).

However, because we are oppositely charged they simply can’t help but be attracted to us. They continue to host their media here, consume our broadcast television, follow our politics, etc.

Furthermore, there are some people who consume more media than they produce. If you spend a lot of time reading wikipedia but never contribute back you’ll build up a negative charge. Same goes if your torrent share ratio is < 1 or if you lurk in IRC.

This is also why designers and artistic types are often so different from business and engineering types. Since they are creating more than they consume they have a positive charge. Others have a negative
charge.

This is why it’s very common to have an artistic, creative person with an engineering, analytical person. Their opposite charges cause them to be eerily attracted. Similarly, artists tend to work in isolation because their positive charges repel other artists. You’ll also notice commenters on slashdot and other tech sites tend to be so grumpy. Their negative charges repel each other.

This has happened before. World War 1 and 2 were both indirectly caused by a build-up of creative talent in certain western countries. And like a bolt of lightening, conflict broke out, tearing through Europe, in order to redistribute the positive and negative charges in a more equal fashion.

Originally posted to CIALUG mailing list.