Familiarity breeds... Punya Mishra The word "awesome" not so long ago, had real meaning. Awesome is rooted in the word "awe" – which I believe is an onomatopoeic word, quite aptly describing the sound that one makes (or is liable to make) when the jaw drops with surprise – Aww!. Awesome was used to describe something that left us "awestruck" – the Grand Canyon, the infinities that modern astronomy or evolution have revealed to us. Today "awesome," to put it mildly, has lost its punch. It is used to describe whatever that seems even slightly out of the ordinary – a more violent that necessary rock video, for instance. Familiarity, it is rightly said, breeds contempt. To which Mark Twain, with characteristic wit, added, "and children." Of course, I always felt that Mark Twain could have been far more succinct by just saying, "Familiarity breeds!" The spawning of children aside, increased familiarity does lead to a lessening of value. The degeneracy of the word awesome is just one of many examples that I (or anybody for that matter) could list, if so inclined to do so. But I will restrict myself to just two examples: the first is one that has been with me for a while (a story in search of a context, and this is as good as any); and the second is the one that prompted this a-musing.   Story 1 I have always appreciated and liked the first words Neil Armstrong spoke when he stepped on the moon, "This is a small step for man but a giant leap for mankind." Humble yet intensely aware of the immensity of the achievement, his statement always symbolized for me just what a great moment this was. Now if we fast forward a few decades and come to Bruce McCandless the first man to walk un-tethered in space. Describing his experience he said, "It may have been a small step for Neil Armstrong, but it sure was a giant step for me." The sharp contrast between these two statements, in some interesting way, indicates to me the manner in which we (here on planet earth) had lost that feeling of awe that the first space flights generated. Around the same time, India sent its first astronaut (Rakesh Sharma) into space, not its own rocket but rather as a part of a joint Indo-Soviet deal. This was a matter of great pride for India and every detail of his trip made headlines across the country. For instance, his first phone interview was greeted with great fanfare and broadcast live. When asked about what he saw from space, he said, "Saare jahan se accha Hindustaan Hamara" the familiar (to every Indian) refrain from a patriotic song. It literally translates to "India is better than the entire world." I was in highschool then, and I remember even at that age being deeply bothered by the fact that, even from the context of outer space, seeing the "pale blue dot" against the grandeur of the cosmos, parochial, earth based silliness held sway. We had indeed come a long way from a giant step for mankind.   Story 2 I just received the book the Victorian Internet and just finished skimming its preface and that's all I completed before I just had to write this a-musing. The Victorian Internet is the story of a now obsolete technology – the telegraph. It recounts how this technology influenced and affected the economics, culture and daily life of the people a hundred odd years ago. The parallels to today's obsession, the Internet are clear and should make for fascinating reading (at least that what the reviews and blurps tell me). However, I would like to just highlight one difference between the Victorian Internet and today's Internet. Senator Al Gore (now Vice President and possibly President in the near future) coined a phrase that for a while became the semi-official name for the Internet. His father had been one of the principal architects of the Interstate Highway system and Al Gore chose the idea of the "highway" to be the principle defining metaphor for the Internet. He called it the Information Superhighway. Even today, though the phrase is used less frequently, the highway of information metaphor remains one of the dominant metaphors used to describe or understand the Internet. This is most clearly revealed by studying the greatest arbitrator of popular understanding and knowledge – the television commercial. Interestingly, it seems that dominant metaphor to describe the Victorian Internet was also that of the highway. However it was not a highway of information but rather of thought! The highway of thought, what a wonderful, evocative, and maybe even poetic phrase. How I wish Al Gore had come up with that. Information versus thought. Facts versus ideas. Stones versus calculus. Static versus dynamic. Rock versus stream. The superhighway of information versus The Superhighway of Thought. Is this impoverished imagination a sign of the times? I wonder? A reminder of what we value today? Or, more importantly, what we have forgotten to value because we take it for granted. Familiarity breeds!   But... But again I think of what a field day the advertisers would have had with "The highway of thought." Maybe it is better this way. Maybe each generation gets the metaphors it deserves.