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Time To Take the Internet Seriously
santosh maharshi passes along an article on Edge by David Gelernter, the man who (according to the introduction) predicted the Web and first described cloud computing; he's also a Unabomber survivor. Gelernter makes 35 predictions and assertions, some brilliant, some dubious. "6. We know that the Internet creates 'information overload,' a problem with two parts: increasing number of information sources and increasing information flow per source. The first part is harder: it's more difficult to understand five people speaking simultaneously than one person talking fast — especially if you can tell the one person to stop temporarily, or go back and repeat. Integrating multiple information sources is crucial to solving information overload. Blogs and other anthology-sites integrate information from many sources. But we won't be able to solve the overload problem until each Internet user can choose for himself what sources to integrate, and can add to this mix the most important source of all: his own personal information — his email and other messages, reminders and documents of all sorts. To accomplish this, we merely need to turn the whole Cybersphere on its side, so that time instead of space is the main axis. ... 14. The structure called a cyberstream or lifestream is better suited to the Internet than a conventional website because it shows information-in-motion, a rushing flow of fresh information instead of a stagnant pool."
The idea that the internet is ever going to deliver massive quality ignores the simple fact: previous mediums were controlled by the elite. To hold a medium controlled by everyone to the same standards as mediums controlled by a select group is to ignore the very nature of the internet!
The internet is LolCatz and Rickrolling and Facebook Pickle people talking shit on Nickelback.
Acting like this fact imperils our ever present need for another Rousseau is elitist bullshit.
Too long our humanity has been defined by assholes who sniff at the notion that our useless and infantile pursuits aren't good enough. Fuck them! What proof is there that Icanhazcheeseburger isn't this generation's Guernica?
We have a right to just be human, without some shit-eating prick telling us we're not doing a good enough job of meeting his definition of awesome.
Quantity is not quality. I get it. But, have you seen some of the shit they call quality? 90% of Shakespeare is stupid and unreadable. Foucault is downright fucking retarded. And frankly I still don't get how Plato's Cave helps me make ends meet.
Quality is just elitist bullshit. We have a right to a stupid and useless internet.
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.