The Web as Heaven

I likened the Web once to a santarium, and I also called the blogosphere a prestige economy, but now reflecting on my footnote about the relationship between religion and the patent office, I realize that really what the online world really is like is Heaven. In the sanitarium, viscerality and the possibility of physical violence remains, the prospect of overcrowding limits how many people live there and who you're liable to meet, and everything is fleeting and temporal. Meanwhile the Web is safe, infinite and eternal. Even after I'm dead people might come here to interact with this expression of myself by posting a comment. Everybody alive now and who will ever live can come, JPEGs of your dog will be there, and there will never be any violence. Seeing how attracted people are to the idea of Heaven, it's no wonder we like the Web.

Note also how still it's marginally easier to squeeze a camel through the eye of a needle than to find an ivory tower inhabitant online. Don't know enough religion to assign a heavenly role to Google, who reunites you with the friends and loved ones of this world. Perhaps St. Peter?