The article doesn't really address the question posed in the sexy title, as you begin to do. The kind of proliferation of writing that worried Luther and then P

The article doesn't really address the question posed in the sexy title, as you begin to do. The kind of proliferation of writing that worried Luther and then Poe and now the "pessimists" mentioned here presents readers with the intellectual challenge of figuring out what's really authoritative or just good versus what's throwaway. Poe apparently thought that was an evil, but maybe meeting that challenge does make people smarter, even if the sci journal vs. erotic fiction opposition makes it seem easy (I don't want to throw away the M. de Sade!). "How is the internet changing the way you think?" is an Edge question. http://edge.org/q2010/q10_index.html http://edge.org/q2010/q10_index.html