Ever had this happen?

[Email from "Joe" to me}:
Thad - I met with Fred the other day. He's a complete lunatic. He doesn't know anything about this stuff. We need to make sure to get him off this contract ASAP. - Joe

[Email forwarded to Fred, from me. Accidentally selected "include message"]:

Dear Fred,

Joe said he enjoyed meeting with you the other day. He recommended that we take your suggestions under advisement. I'll be in touch with you later to discuss how we should proceed.

Best regards,
Thad

>I met with Fred the other day. He's a complete lunatic. He doesn't know anything about this stuff.
>We need to make sure to get him off this contract ASAP. -Joe

OOPS. Well, it's just one of the interesting things that can happen in the new environment of instant communication. I've been reading a text on wireless communication. Turns out that this idea is really catching on in some areas. Underdeveloped countries, like New Mexico, are where the fastest growth is taking place. It's a lot cheaper to put up a couple of antennas than to run copper wire all over the place. Soon there will be wireless communicators all over major cities, so people can go anywhere and not be out of touch. I'm old enough to remember busy signals, and rings that would go on indefinitely until you decided that the person you were calling really wasn't home, or didn't care to talk.

I found myself wondering why we humans seem to have such a deep-seated need to communicate. What is it about our nature that desperately desires this? We write blogs imagining that someone will read them and care. We talk on the phone while we drive, walk, play with our kids. We seem to be losing the art of being alone, at peace with our own souls. A recent article I read studied cell phone use on airplanes. It is illegal to use a cell phone at any time during a flight, but a research team brought equipment on board numerous flights and determined that on every flight at least one person was using a cell phone. None of the flights they studied went careening out of control as a result, but they suggest the possibility does really exist.

I don't have the answers yet, but I'm willing to entertain thoughts from any of the hundreds of people who are undoubtedly reading this and craving every next word. Gotta go - the phone's ringing.