TMcClanahan's+Personal+Analysis

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__**Today's Society**__

Plato was a philosopher whose ideas were thought up to fit the basic ways of society. Plato's reference to the intelligent thinking of someone who was able to go "outside of the cave" can still be seen in people today. In today's society, string theorists are thinking about as far outside of the cave as possible. The ideas of a string theorists are more innovative then the average person, or someone inside the cave. "Unfortunately, ...the strings are way too small to see by current or expected particle physics technology and so string theorists must devise more clever methods to test the theory than just looking for little strings in particle experiments." Although the ideas of string theory have not been proven yet, the thought is more then most people can handle. This is a kind of "outside of the cave" thinking that Plato was talking about to describe some who was enlightened.

__**Our Nation's History**__

People such as the Wright brothers were outside of the cave thinkers of their era. Having the mindset to be able to think that people would be able to fly with machine assistance seemed crazy. They were able to build such a machine and revolutionize travel. They were also able to get people to follow their idea and assist them in their work. "The 1903 Wright Flyer, the world's first successful airplane," was the "first heavier-than-air, powered aircraft to make a sustained, controlled flight with a pilot aboard."

The invention of the internet is another example of someone who was thinking outside of the cave. "The Internet and Transmission Control Protocols were initially developed in 1973 by American computer scientist Vinton Cerf." Having the thought that there was a way to interconnect people over the internet revolutionized the world. People were now able to communicate, do business, and research almost anything. This idea was able to enlighten many people through the ability to do research on many different topics. The ability to communicate by ways such as email helped certain buildings greatly.

__Bibliography__ Ament, Phil. "Invention of Internet." __Internet__. 30 may 2007. The Great Idea Founder. 11 Dec 2007 http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/internet.htm

"Index of /Daryl/cave." 5 Dec 2007 [|http://luminpro.com/darryl/cave/.]

Schwarz, Patricia. "Basics." __The Official String THeory Web Site__. 7 Dec 2007 http://www.superstringtheory.com/index.html.

"Smithsonian, National AIr and SPace Museum." __THe Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Aerial Age__. 2007. SMithsonian Institution. 8 Dec 2007 http://www.nasm.si.edu/wrightbrothers/.