Inter(con)ne(c)t(ions)

Everyone who knows me must surely know that I love the internet.  But why do I love it?  Youtube? Sure.  Wikipedia?  Of course!   Kickstarter?  Amazon?   Online comics?  Yes, Yes and Yes!  But there's more.  It's hard to articulate but, with your permission, I'll give it a stumbling try.  My first stumbling grasp at an answer tells me I love it for its connections.  I love that everything I find ends up connected to something else (ze frank features a song by Jonathan Coulton, who then performs onstage with Neil Gaiman, who also performs with john Hodgeman, whose 700 hobos project was much illustrated by Adam Koford ... and so on and so on)  But I also love that when I see a connection, I can track it down at once.  I was just watching a vlogbrothers video when, at the 3:10 mark, I see an image of the sculpture at left..

which is a sculpture in Dublin which reminds me of a sculpture I've seen many times at the Milwaukee Public Museum.  I don't know the artist or title of either piece.  Or rather, I didn't.  'Dublin' 'sphere' sculpture dumped into google tells me that it's called 'Sphere within Sphere, that it was created in1982 by Arnaldo Pomodoro, who gave it to Trinity College in Dublin.  Dumping 'Arnaldo Pomodor' and 'Milwaukee' into google tells me that, yes, he's the architect of the piece in the Milwaukee Art Museum as well, that it's title is 'Sphere No. 5' (image at right); it was created in 1965 and donated to the museum  by benefactor Mrs. Harry Lynde Bradley.  Before the internet, learning all of this would have taken weeks or months of mailing letters, making phone calls, visiting the library for addresses... but it doesn't really matter because I'd never have done it.  I'd have been left with a feeling of 'Huh.  That looks familiar'.

And more connections has to be a good thing.  The only way the human race is going to accomplish everything it needs to  in order to survive long enough to spread ourselves across the galaxies is if we're all connected - inklings meeting musings and becoming ideas, which can become proposals, then projects and eventually, become our history.  How can I not love this?!?