The dream version of being an author takes two shapes: it's either a peaceful reverie in which you quietly tap away at your keyboard while your fans wait with bated breath for your next release, or it's a thrilling adventure filled with exotic speaking gigs and book - turned - movie deals that exceed
your wildest financial expectations.
Perhaps the internet is doing all of the above and more: encouraging and unifying small religious and other movements; further facilitating scientific unification across geographic proximity, if not also creating new scientific theories and concepts; fostering the rise of new forms of spiritual irrationalism such as those discussed in Wendy Kaminer's
wild book, Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials; focusing the public even more on particular public personas in news, sports and everything else; creating new classes of investors who are willing to publish online just about anything, regardless of whether or not they agree with it; germinating new technological ideas that are luring capitalists who hold unreasonable
expectations of
financial bonanzas.