Dreams. There are two types of dreams: 1. When you are sleeping there are stories unfolding in your mind from a parallel dimension. 2. The aims one has in life. The latter is the type of dream I wish to discuss. We all have these dreams, don’t we? We picture ourselves in the future having realized our talents, having achieved in the areas that interest us most. Your dream may have been a relatively simple one, like reaching enlightenment, or helping to create world peace! Maybe your dream was just to set foot on as many beaches across the planet as possible, a little selfish-but hey, you’re still sharing a smile everywhere you go. In this the Information Age, our dreams have become more realistic and practical to attain. With the Internet and web sites in particular, a global consciousness is forming to help all people towards their goals.

Lets say you’re a young lady who lives in a small town in who-knows-where-land. Your dream is to one day live in a forest as a ranger, taking care of the trees and animals, living at one with nature. The Internet seems far removed from this reality but in truth it can be a main section of the road to your destination. By looking at web sites you can find out what other people with similar interests think about the subject. You can find out where you’ll need to go to study, what interest groups to join, and get opposing opinions on the pros and cons of a ranger’s life. You can communicate with experts from the other side of the world just as if they were next door. Seven days a week, night or day, you can access information and ideas from a wide community, a community you now belong to. All it took to start towards realizing the dream was simply by adding your identity to the new world culture created by millions of other normal minds. These are people who want to further humanity through the process of communication.

Now, let’s say you’re an old grandma living far away from the rest of the family. Seeing your grandchildren is a rarity as money to travel is not abundant. Through the websites and email on the World Wide Web, your family can ‘talk’ and send recent photos electronically. Distance becomes irrelevant and love connections remain intact, maybe even becoming stronger than before.

The Internet is bringing human society more closely together everyday. National boundaries turn out to be unnecessary, as knowledge and wisdom become the imperative of the people. As individuals become known identities in this world community, dreams are worked towards with newfound relish. Friends are instantly made, and loved ones are also kept involved in the present picture of life. A Global consciousness is forming and your input is only going to further the evolution of society and happiness for all people.

Modern Mass Transit is making it easier for commuters, especially with the latest inter connecting wireless technologies. Many buses, commuter trains, shuttles and even trolley cars now have WiFi wireless computer access so no one is out of touch during the travel time. This is being done now in Baltimore to NY trains and in Sacramento to San Francisco Trains thanks to Amtrak. After all we now have WiFi hotspots at McDonalds, Kinko’s, Book Stores, Starbucks, Airports and hotel lobbies already.

By having these amenities we can get people to stay out of their cars and enjoy the commute and or take a high speed train on their next trip; not to mention save the gasoline which is approaching $3.00 per gallon. Once the system is built the operational costs are relatively low considering the costs of expanding airports which tend to have cyclical trends during boom and bust years and thus hard to manage your ROI, with gates becoming empty and then new gates which need to be built in the up cycle. One only has to follow the sector rotations of the airline industry and take a trip through the California desert and look at Billions of dollars of Airliners sitting hibernated which may never be used again. Between the cutthroat price wars, Bankruptcy tactics and now era of International Terrorism we need to rethink our transportation strategy to include other redundancy methods, which can deliver the speed and comfort that we use to have in Commercial Aviation.

We have only a couple Nationwide Bus Companies that deliver people across the country. We need to insure buses are safe also in the era of International Terrorism and at the same time we need to increase usage and ridership. New interconnected wireless technologies can do both. Since you are already on the Internet you can send video feed back to the command and control for the mass transit system and constantly monitor.

Providing amenities to commuters and safety at the same time will bring riders back and let’s face it no one wants to pay $85.00 each week to fill up their SUV with gasoline. Now is a good time to coax the public back to the mass transit systems we have already set up and improve the economies of scale to make those old embellished proformas used to float the bond measure a reality. Can technology really do all that? Perhaps it can. Think about it.