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50 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JULY 2022 "And finally, in the years to come, most human exchange will be virtual rather than physi- cal, consisting not of stuff but the stuff of which dreams are made. Our future business will be conducted in a world made more of verbs than nouns." —John Perry Barlow, 1994 A key to the success of the Roman empire was its extended roadway system. Designed by planners called mensors, and executed by Roman legions, they were transnational, con- necting the then-known world across culture and region. ey are seen as an infrastructure of empire, expanding economy by trade, knowl- edge, and security, bringing prolific wealth and new ideas to every corner of Rome's vast terri- tory, and creating a superhighway for defense and conquest. As wonderful as they sound and as much good as they did for antiquity, they were not always safe. Knowing the amount of wealth they carried, the roads were frequented by bandits and criminals 1 . Jesus Christ of Naz- areth expanded upon this in the Good Samari- tan parable in the gospel of Luke. While a fac- titious story, the parable is based on a real fear faced by denizens of the ancient world. Today's internet is the modern version of the Via Publicae 2 . It's an apt metaphor. e inter- net has changed the world for good in many ways, bringing a wealth of knowledge, oppor- tunity, and equality to nearly every corner of the globe. Its value to the global economy, and in effect the end consumer, is priceless. If the internet were to crash, our way of life would be severely affected. However, where we tend to stop short in this metaphor is how our virtual The Virtual Via Drum The Big Picture Feature Column by Mehul Davé, ENTELECHY GLOBAL INC.