How would you explain the Web* to Thomas Jefferson if he showed up right now in a time machine?
"Imagine a street corner where people come and post flyers and discuss ideas, thoughts, memories, jokes (and sometimes even facts."
Ok.
"Now imagine if everyone in the entire world could be at that street corner at the same time."
Wow.
"But they won't be. Only a small number will be there at any point in time. But everybody could come back at any time to see what was discussed, to see all the flyers posted on top of each other."
But how? How would everything be stored? How could I possibly understand everything that is there? How could I understand who all these people are that are posting all these flyers?
"You won't understand everything; you won't know everybody. But you'll learn not to care, and you'll just focus on what you want to focus on. That might be you, that might be one person, that might be one topic; but that will be your choice."
But I'll only be able to read the flyers? Will I be able to hear everyone's voice? Or see their faces, or feel their handshakes? How I will be able to feel their passion?
"There will be some ways to see and hear them, but most people will just write flyers, and we'll use words, punctuation and other text-based means to convey passion, personality and character. You'll get used to making decisions with only a small bit of information."
That sounds like a beautiful mess. Show me right now.
"Okay, let's find out what people have been saying about YOU over the years..."
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* I made a slight change: the original question asked to explain the Internet; I chose to explain the Web instead because, well, I felt like it. I'd love to see how you'd explain the Internet...