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He wasn't wrong, either. Having lived the first half of my life without a computer at home and the second half with more and more of them, the only thing I can

He wasn't wrong, either. Having lived the first half of my life without a computer at home and the second half with more and more of them, the only thing I can say is a real improvement is that I can transfer funds from my account to my wife's at any time. The rest isn't that great. Probably hard to understand if you never lived without them.

mwcampbell 8y ago
That's overly pessimistic. Isn't it awesome that computers have enabled worldwide communities like this one? Asynchronous communication through text, enabled by computers, is also a great equalizer for people with disabilities and other differences. Blind people, deaf people, quadriplegics, people with speech impediments (e.g. stuttering), non-native speakers of the language, etc. can all communicate and work together, without even being aware of each other's difficulties. To be fair, all of that was enabled by the earliest BBSes, and I guess we haven't made as much progress in the meantime as some people (like Engelbart and Nelson) hoped.
- sverige 8y ago
  You are correct about asynchronous communication, of course. That is a great thing, and I should have included IRC / texting on the plus side. The worldwide communities? I enjoy them, but it seems to me that it is one of the fundamental causes of the increasing fragmentation of society. Hannah Arendt describe this as 'atomized' society. Totalitarian regimes have flourished in such environments. In the old days, if you didn't fit in, you had to make an effort to find common ground with others physically near you to enjoy a social life. This led to a lot of seredipity and built social cohesion. Nowadays, it's a lot easier to hate your neighbor who disagrees with you politically or culturally because there's always a virtual means of socializing just a click away. Nelson was a visionary to coin 'virtualization' but I think he and many others have been far too optimistic about the end results of that ongoing experiment. It is far easier to manipulate people into committing acts of physical violence against their neighbors than is commonly believed in a society that has become 'atomized,' and virtual communities are a terrific means to creating an atomized society.

mwcampbell 8y ago

That's overly pessimistic. Isn't it awesome that computers have enabled worldwide communities like this one? Asynchronous communication through text, enabled by computers, is also a great equalizer for people with disabilities and other differences. Blind people, deaf people, quadriplegics, people with speech impediments (e.g. stuttering), non-native speakers of the language, etc. can all communicate and work together, without even being aware of each other's difficulties. To be fair, all of that was enabled by the earliest BBSes, and I guess we haven't made as much progress in the meantime as some people (like Engelbart and Nelson) hoped.

sverige 8y ago
You are correct about asynchronous communication, of course. That is a great thing, and I should have included IRC / texting on the plus side. The worldwide communities? I enjoy them, but it seems to me that it is one of the fundamental causes of the increasing fragmentation of society. Hannah Arendt describe this as 'atomized' society. Totalitarian regimes have flourished in such environments. In the old days, if you didn't fit in, you had to make an effort to find common ground with others physically near you to enjoy a social life. This led to a lot of seredipity and built social cohesion. Nowadays, it's a lot easier to hate your neighbor who disagrees with you politically or culturally because there's always a virtual means of socializing just a click away. Nelson was a visionary to coin 'virtualization' but I think he and many others have been far too optimistic about the end results of that ongoing experiment. It is far easier to manipulate people into committing acts of physical violence against their neighbors than is commonly believed in a society that has become 'atomized,' and virtual communities are a terrific means to creating an atomized society.