Originally Posted by
nonsense
"Only one generation in history (ours) will experience life both with and without the Internet. For everyone who follows us, online life will simply be the air they breathe. Today, we revel in ubiquitous information and constant connection, rarely stopping to consider the implications for our logged-on lives."
Connected, maybe, but only for this brief period of a few decades will the human race experience a life where they can immediately contact anyone, anywhere, at any time.
Once we start living on the Moon, that's about a three second round trip at the speed of light. Already enough to be problematic due to network lag, but not enough to prevent a phone call.
Mars, you can send emails, but you can't make a phone call, or interact meaningfully with a server on Earth. Try to update your status on Facebook, and you'll be waiting twenty minutes or more for it to respond to pressing the 'Post' button.
Alpha Centauri? Nine year round trip for an email and response from Earth. We're done.
We really are living in a unique period in human history, but not for the reasons quoted.