Back when the internet was just starting, there were many, how can we put this politely, ‘optimistic’ predictions in the vein of bringing the world together, unbounded communication, openness, a giant leap forward for mankind – blah blah blah.

Unfortunately, what we got was a commercialized, sectarian echo chamber that, more often than not, served to augment the insular tendencies humanity is famous for.  Rather than being exposed to ideas from all the cultures with access to the web, we limit our exposure and often work very hard to keep what we watch and read within our small cultural frameworks.  Ignorance still rules the day as like minded communities spin their self-referential webs of their preferred reality, creating closed online cultures that desperately maintain the status-quo.  It’s a shitty feature of meat-space replicated to “Nth” time here on the web.

Eric Whitacre’s projects reach across these boundaries, across the sectarian divides and foist people out of their enclaves so they can join and share a common goal; the production of beautiful music.  I have reservations about some of the technical aspects of what Whitacre is doing with the Virtual Choirs, but I am in full agreement with the spirit of what the VC’s accomplish.  Bringing people together to work toward a common goal despite all the cultural baggage and all the prejudice and insular nonsense that routinely bollocks-up human interactions.

The Virtual Choirs hint at what the internet should be for, as opposed what it is at the moment.