Words: 848
To what extend would you agree with this description of the Silk Road (Internet of Antiquity) and his (Yo-Yo Ma) comparison of It to the Internet of our world today? A comparison of the Silk Road and the Modern Internet surprisingly reveals that these two systems share their own similarities and differences.
From analyzing both systems, it came up that the modern internet could be a repeat of what happened in the Silk Road, although in a more advances and modernized way! Now, although hese two systems share many similarities, they also have their own differences. The problem is, do the similarities outrun the differences or could it be the other way round? Could Yo-Yo Ma’s description be right, is the modern internet really the “Internet of Antiquity’?
In order to get the information I need, I will simply compare these two systems using three points: Trade Communication Information Silk Road The Silk Road, or Silk Route, is a series of trade and cultural transmission routes that were central to cultural interaction through regions of the Asian continent connecting he West and East by linking traders, merchants, pilgrims, monks, soldiers, nomads and urban dwellers from China to the Mediterranean Sea during various periods of time.
Basic Specifications: Trade – Along the Silk Road, different people bought goods from each other using two different techniques, Barter whereby you exchange a particular item for another item and using money to purchase goods. Communication- As people went to dfferent places to buy goods, they met with other people who were not from their place of stay and were of different culture. Through this face o face communication they learnt the way of life for other people and brought back their knowledge home.
Information- Along the Silk Road, they were many people of different religions and cultures. As different people met, they got to know things about each other. Some people this, things like religion and culture were able to spread to further countries after passing these cultures to many others. Modern Internet The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to serve several billion users worldwide.
It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries an extensive range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW), the infrastructure to support email, and peer-to-peer networks. Trade- Things in the internet work faster without an individual having to sweat moving around.
If an individual wanted to sell their item, all they had to do is take a picture of it, write down a description and post it in one of the trading websites. These websites include: http://www. amazon. com/, http://www. olx. co. ke/, www. ebay. com/ and many more! These goods were purchased using two different ways. The buyer could decide to meet the seller if the buyer were near and purchase it using tangible money. It is also possible to purchase the good easily using internet money that is not tangible, and then the product will be delivered to you with an extra cost for ransport.
Social networks were made in the internet to make it easier to communicate with someone 1,000,000 or more kilometers far from you without moving! Such website like Facebook, Twitter, Linklin and many more make it easier for us to contact someone who is in another continent, and share photos, videos and news with each other! In the modern internet, information is spread around easier and faster. Only by a click, billions of people who can connect to the internet are able to read your making your own website and type down what you have to type.
Some of the common “websites” That help you do this are: www. weebly. com, www. webs. com, www. blogspot. com, and finally www. wordpress. com. these two systems share their own similarities and differences….. Has my question been answered? Yes it has, after using the three points to compare/contrast the two systems, the Silk Road and the Modern Internet! After completing my essay, I have agreed to Yo-Yo-Ma’s description of the internet “The Internet of Antiquity’. First of all, what does antiquity or rather “Antique” mean?
An Antique is a very old item that has been treasured for a long time. So what Yo-Yo-Ma means by “The Internet of Antiquity’ is that the modern Internet is like the modernized Silk Road and treasured for many years! After comparing both systems using the three points, Trade, Communication and Information, I found more similarities between the two; the only difference3 was that the internet was only a bit more modernized than the Silk Road since it occurred Just recently!