4 ms·

I think it's appropriate to quote Vint Cerf here, "The internet is a reflection of our society and that mirror is going to be reflecting what we see. If we do

I think it's appropriate to quote Vint Cerf here, "The internet is a reflection of our society and that mirror is going to be reflecting what we see. If we do not like what we see in that mirror the problem is not to fix the mirror, we have to fix society." ―Vint Cerf https://icannwiki.org/Vinton_Cerf https://icannwiki.org/Vinton_Cerf

quotemstr 8y ago
Conversely, if you're unsatisfied with yourself, making your mirror distort your reflection will only make things worse. I reserve a special level of contempt for people who think they can "fix" society by using force or authority to control how other people think, speak, and feel.
- senthil_rajasek 8y ago
  A distorting mirror is not what Vint is suggesting, the problem is not the mirror it's the subject, fix the subject is what I take out of that quote. Violence or force is not the only answer to fix society I have seen the light of knowledge work miracles on certain societal problems.
  - quotemstr 8y ago
    Vint isn't suggesting that we do that, but a lot of other people are. Nothing good can come of it; the article is part of the backlash against this impulse. (And that should be disconcerting: backlashes have a way of being worse than whatever it is they're fighting.)
liftbigweights 8y ago
That was the relatively decentralized and competitive pre-social media internet. The problem now is that google and facebook have such a dominant position that larry page and zuckerburg can decide what to show us and what not to show us. They essentially hold the mirror and they decide what we get to see. Vint Cerf's internet is the one I grew up with and the one I believe in. With the rise of social media and monopolistic tech companies, the relatively uncensored decentralized internet has turned into a dystopian curated and centralized one.
mikeash 8y ago
The internet is a reflection of the most extreme (and thus crazy) parts of our society. It’s basically what you’d get in a democracy if you could just vote over and over again. Nutcases with too much time on their hands would spend all day voting, because they’re true believers or just for the lulz. Ordinary people might vote a few times, but they have other stuff to do. When they realize they have no real power against the nutcases, they might just give up. Now replace “voting” with “posting” and you’re pretty close to how modern social media works.
- senthil_rajasek 8y ago
  I think this is where Google (search) and Facebook ( social media ) are different. Google was based on the strength of an algorithm that filters out less relevant content. Providing/promoting relevant content is one thing society can do to separate the crazy.

quotemstr 8y ago

Conversely, if you're unsatisfied with yourself, making your mirror distort your reflection will only make things worse. I reserve a special level of contempt for people who think they can "fix" society by using force or authority to control how other people think, speak, and feel.

senthil_rajasek 8y ago
A distorting mirror is not what Vint is suggesting, the problem is not the mirror it's the subject, fix the subject is what I take out of that quote. Violence or force is not the only answer to fix society I have seen the light of knowledge work miracles on certain societal problems.
- quotemstr 8y ago
  Vint isn't suggesting that we do that, but a lot of other people are. Nothing good can come of it; the article is part of the backlash against this impulse. (And that should be disconcerting: backlashes have a way of being worse than whatever it is they're fighting.)

liftbigweights 8y ago

That was the relatively decentralized and competitive pre-social media internet. The problem now is that google and facebook have such a dominant position that larry page and zuckerburg can decide what to show us and what not to show us. They essentially hold the mirror and they decide what we get to see. Vint Cerf's internet is the one I grew up with and the one I believe in. With the rise of social media and monopolistic tech companies, the relatively uncensored decentralized internet has turned into a dystopian curated and centralized one.

mikeash 8y ago

The internet is a reflection of the most extreme (and thus crazy) parts of our society. It’s basically what you’d get in a democracy if you could just vote over and over again. Nutcases with too much time on their hands would spend all day voting, because they’re true believers or just for the lulz. Ordinary people might vote a few times, but they have other stuff to do. When they realize they have no real power against the nutcases, they might just give up. Now replace “voting” with “posting” and you’re pretty close to how modern social media works.

senthil_rajasek 8y ago
I think this is where Google (search) and Facebook ( social media ) are different. Google was based on the strength of an algorithm that filters out less relevant content. Providing/promoting relevant content is one thing society can do to separate the crazy.