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This is a good article. Andre, don't pay attention to the usual HN cynicism. You posed a good thesis and defended it. The web, as we have traditionally defined
by DanielBMarkham 9y ago
This is a good article. Andre, don't pay attention to the usual HN cynicism. You posed a good thesis and defended it. The web, as we have traditionally defined it, is dying. Or dead. Yes, technically the protocols still work, but the day-to-day structure and use of the web is completely different than anybody expected or wanted it to be.
I think the key place where we went wrong is that we envisioned the web as a utility to help expand each person's mind and communication abilities. Instead it's morphing into a service where large groups of people can clan and waste time around the virtual water cooler. It was supposed to be a brain super-power. Instead it's a shared newsletter for angry mobs. It was supposed to free us up to find out amazing things about the world around us. Instead it's freed up the world around us to examine us in exquisite detail. We don't surf the internet anymore. The internet surfs us.
And yes, that sounds a lot like hyperbole, but such is the nature of essays like this. When I wrote "Technology is Heroin" ( http://www.whattofix.com/blog/archives/2009/02/technology-is-h.php http://www.whattofix.com/blog/archives/2009/02/technology-is... ) I didn't mean it was literally heroin. I meant it was taking on the role that dangerous drugs had in times past. The web isn't literally dying. It's changing into something so different than what we wanted that it is for all intents and purposes dead. Many folks are getting wrapped up in the semantics of the discussion instead of the underlying meaning.
Looking forward to seeing more of your work!
- staltz 9y agoMany thanks! I share your thoughts that tech is "heroin", in fact I've been thinking that UX is killing us, it has become so good, that it's addicting. This is true clinically too, as social media instant gratification releases Dopamine and its usage is an activity comparable to gambling. There is a way forward, though. Between the Old Web and GOOG-FB-AMZN's Trinet, we can build something else: the New Web based on decentralized protocols like IPFS, Dat, blockchains, secure-scuttlebutt, and others. That's what I'm working on.
- salmonfamine 9y agoI have seen articles and repos for various technologies that claim to be the new "decentralized" web, but so far I haven't seen anything that provides a cohesive experience. Could you provide more information as to what you're working on in particular?
- dleslie 9y agoA not-insignificant portion of HN is employed by the three you've accused of killing the web, and with a somewhat convincing argument. It must be a tough pill to swallow when hearing that the employer you love is killing the platform that has defined your adult life.
- kowdermeister 9y agoUX is killing us Like guns kill people, right?
- knowaveragejoe 9y agoGuns do kill people, but it's obviously less extreme than that. Killing us in a long term way by encouraging sedentary behavior, for example.
- sordidasset 9y agoBut if, as you predict, ISPs/infrastructure only support GOOG, FB, and AMZN packets, what good will alternative protocols be? Seems like there will be no opportunity for new information-innovations like Bitcoin. Seems like the solution is to begin treating infrastructure as a public utility, but I can hardly imagine that actually happening.
- dredmorbius 9y agoI'd twigged on "the dopamine meme" by April 2014, you're right about that. What creates decentralisation is distance and transport costs, not (merely0 prottocols, and definitely not efficiences: they are inherently centralising. https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/240xss/the_dopamine_meme_and_capitalism_as_the/ https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/240xss/the_dop...
- mdpopescu 9y agoGood article - although I disagree with pretty much everything you wrote, it forced me to think.
- bluefox 9y ago> DeQuincey wrote a later book called “Miseries of Opium” in which he went on at length about how opium completely destroyed his life. But nobody bought that one. Do you have a link to a bibliography where this book appears?
- icebraining 9y agoActually, the thesis is quite cynical :) Which doesn't mean it's wrong. By the way, I found your article interesting too. I do think it has a blind spot, in that you're missing a very big addiction that has stayed with us for a long time: work.