Einstein believed that we use only something like 10% of our brains. He believed that if we got to a point where we utilized 100% of our brains, we would become pure energy, discarding the need for our fragile and temporary bodies: life after death. So it follows that we could use the 10% to generate the best of what we learn, store it on a database which represents the unused 90%, and use the 10% to tap into that 90% database of acquired knowledge, thus operating for all intents and purposes with, if not 100%, then at least more of our brain power. If you look at the Internet and how we exist there without bodies, it could legitimately be interpreted that we have proven Al's theory... It could further be imagined that the Internet represents 50 million of those 90% storage spaces or data repositories, and to tap into them bodiless is to, as Jimi Hendrix might say, kiss the sky... We are all indeed connected.

  - - Thomas R. Laidlaw, G.E.D.

 
One of the best ways to validate a vision is to witness it being enacted. The Unofficial Soup Kitchen is honored to provide a link to an opportunity to experience a gathering of minds in a sprawling, yet cohesive, community where people from all over the world are meeting, conversing, socializing, learning, teaching and connecting.

The people at electric minds have likened their forum to the Greek agora. The warm, welcoming atmosphere encourages participation in the varied discussions taking place at any given time. Many of us here at the Soup have become members of the e-minds community. In doing so we hope to light our own candle, guide the way for our own evolving community, and fan our nascent flame until it becomes a virtual bonfire.

The Unofficial Soup Kitchen therefore urges you to follow the link to electric minds, take a look around, and, if you find it as inviting as we do, register, log in, and join a conversation. Meet some of the people you've enaged in conversation by clicking on their user names, where you can read their profiles (an example is given at the left) and surf their homesites. For tips on what's going on in the sprawling electric minds community, stop by The Unofficial Concierge Desk, Topic 101 in the Commons conference in Meeting of the Minds. We'll see you there!

To expound any more about our excitement about experiencing electric minds would be like saying we need to drop acid together in order to justify reality. We hope that you will let go into the mystery and infuse your own personal relevance to something that has turned us on and helped us gather ideas and new ways of thinking about technology and how it affects our lives.