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Note to other readers: It requires 2 hours to read. This is a timeless classic from Wired, written by Neal Stephenson in 1996. I love this article not only bec

Note to other readers: It requires 2 hours to read. This is a timeless classic from Wired, written by Neal Stephenson in 1996. I love this article not only because of the article itself, but its enthusiasm and energy from the age it was written in. It was an age with a bright future where everything seems possible. Back at that time, Wired represented the avant-garde of Silicon Valley (including the fact that Neal Stephenson being the author) that was going to revolutionize everything through computing and the Internet, the free and fast flow of information enables decentralization, and would liberate us from all the old forms of political control. In particular, this article had a clear techno-libertarian overtone, about how authoritarianism and monopoly would be defeated through disruptive innovation. One goal of constructing FLAG (the cable) was explicitly to reduce the reliance of the infrastructure of the United States and to challenge the role played by traditional ISP over the control. The article even mentioned the early cypherpunk movement (in the mid of the first Crypto War), and acknowledged "Virtually all communications between countries take place through a very small number of bottlenecks, and the available bandwidth simply isn't that great. Even outfits like FLAG don't really grok the Internet." But FLAG was still seen as a step moving towards the correct direction and the beginning of the new network order. The dream eventually came to an end. Wired-inspired DotCom bubble busted. Although FLAG was the first move to break U.S. and traditional ISP's monopoly, future projects in the next 10 years didn't quite accomplish this goal. Silicon Valley became the new giant establishment and monopoly (the critics say massive deregulation was partially responsible). Authoritarian regimes have done a good job preventing the information flowing online to bring liberal political changes. And the Internet has been seized as the means of mass surveillance. Nevertheless, the late 90s was a great age to be alive with that dream.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
supernova87a 6y ago
It's probably like when the first cellphone inventors imagined the freedom and productivity that portability would offer humanity. And didn't realize that a sizeable portion of the eventual effort would turn into serving up cute cat videos and trying to prevent people from yelling at each other based on fake news.
- bcaa7f3a8bbc 6y ago
  > would turn into serving up cute cat videos Cute cats, per se, is not the problem. Did you know the "Cute cat theory of digital activism" [0]? Literally, the first online cat meme posters imagined the freedom and productivity that cats would offer to digital liberty. > trying to prevent people from yelling at each other based on fake news This turns out to be a much bigger problem that couldn't be solved using cat memes. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cute_cat_theory_of_digital_activism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cute_cat_theory_of_digital_act...
andrepd 6y ago
> the free and fast flow of information enables decentralization, and would liberate us from all the old forms of political control. Of course, it turned out precisely the opposite.
- shadowgovt 6y ago
  The fundamental flaw in the original thinking on this topic was that people saw the digital frontier as a new wild west of sorts, where old rules and established lines of power did not apply and a bold, adventurous spirit could carve out a new realm for themselves. The thinking wasn't wrong at all. It merely failed to extrapolate to what happened to the American wild west after the era of the gold rush. The vast, vast majority of humanity doesn't want to live in the wild west. And when given the option between a laissez-faire no rules world where those with better understanding of the natural rules triumph and a structured society, structure wins every time. Nobody is really forced to use Facebook. Or Twitter. Or Google. Or Amazon. But they are, all of them, vastly more convenient than the DIY alternatives which were the only option when the internet was young.
  - ethbro 6y ago
    The gold rush is a good metaphor. Few are willing to dash off into the wilderness for no good reason, but many are willing to do so for a chance at profit. The problem with profit potential is, after it becomes profit likelihood, the second, following wave is inevitably better capitalized. The only way to survive is to strike it big and then entrench hard enough that you can't be dislodged with any surfeit of competitor funding (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Facebook). And then, congratulations, you've become what you used to hate.
gz5 6y ago
well worth the time to read. multiple times. >the free and fast flow of information enables decentralization i was a believer. big time. starting in 99, was helping democratize telecom via VoIP. ate up long tail theory like candy. but now i think we were incorrect in thinking the problem was only on the supply side - the monopolies (of that day) control of the supply side. that was a problem, but there are two sides of the hose. the other side of the hose is us. 24 hours in a day. 1440 minutes. minutes increasingly bombarded as the supply side of the hose has widened, and the hose now lives in our pockets instead of on a piece of furniture. i still believe decentralization will occur - simply because things do usually balance over time (or at least the pendulum moves back and forth) - but won't it take more than 'fixing' the supply side?
- jdkee 6y ago
  https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence
ksec 6y ago
Off topic. >Nevertheless, the late 90s was a great age to be alive with that dream. Music, Art, Tech, everything seems to be better in the 80-90s. An era, just like the article shown and described where people put heart and soul into it. I have been thinking a lot about this, still not entirely sure why. And this isn't nostalgia, I have seen many not born in the era thinking they missed the "golden age". Live is definitely better in post 00s, but something is different. Something is missing.
- iso1631 6y ago
  Everything was always better in the past Many people say the golden age was the 60s. Or the 20s. Or the 70s. Or the 00s. Or the 50s. Probably not the 30s and 40s. There was certainly a change in the 90s, the fall of the Berlin Wall, but pre-9/11, was a major change in western culture, and that feeling of American superiority having "won" the cold war
  - JoeAltmaier 6y ago
    Perhaps the golden age was, "when you were 21".
  - jacobush 6y ago
    I know 12 year olds who "miss" the 80s. So I think there is more to the 80s than pure nostalgia from those who were there.
    - iso1631 6y ago
      When I was a kid there were 12 year olds that missed the 60s. Nothing to do with their parents waxing lyrical about how great the 60s were.
- abetusk 6y ago
  Yeah, no. Sorry to be so contrary but this sounds like nostalgia, not reality. In many ways, we've reached the "plateau of productivity" for many of the promises of the 80s and 90s and I suspect that's why this sentiment persists. The reality of now is not as good as the promise of the 80s-90s but it's definitely better than the reality of the 80s and 90s. I remember talking to people in the 80s and 90s and them talking with reverence about bands like Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, Jesus and Mary Chain etc. and me just "not getting it". I realize why, I just didn't like them very much. In theory I liked this type of music, but the bands were all not very polished and there was just something missing. Cut to years, small bands that would have been forgotten or fizzled out before they could release anything all have an internet presence and do this type of sound better than the bands they're emulating: Schwefelgelb [1], Second Still [2], Linea Aspera [3], Boy Harsher [4] etc. Want 80s synthesizer music that's orders of magnitude better than the 80s? Try Com Truise [5], Airglow [6], or a host of onther "synthwave" musicians [7]. And in terms of tech, there's just absolutely no comparison. We can literally buy full fledged GHz linux boxes for under $20 that run at 1.25W [10]. For the intrepid, they can create radio from software with a USB dongle that costs under $50. Want to make a custom computer? Have it assembled in China and shipped for a minuscule cost of what it would have been 2-3 decades ago. One of the things I think you're forgetting about the 80s and 90s was just how stark it was. You should check out shows like "Halt and Catch Fire" [8] and "Mixed-ish" [9]. They both highlight portions of that time period that were awesome but they also show just how shitty portions of that time period were. You're forgetting the stack of floppies, the game booklets with beautiful art only to find games that looked like pixelated blobs, the waiting for the ISP line to stop being busy, the shitty television with 10 minutes of ads for every 20 minutes of content. A telling example is the magazine 2600. When I was growing up, 2600 was a coveted magazine that was full of promise about the secrets of the burgeoning tech world. It was quintessentially cyberpunk and it was great. Cut to now, 2600 is still in circulation but only up until very recently [11] refused to have an online presence, only putting out a paper magazine and being sold in chains like Barnes and Nobles. They became increasingly irrelevant with the access to knowledge on the internet and then doubly so by refusing to graduate from their 80s aesthetic. I recently had someone show me their zine that was either printed or "authentically" xeroxed and painstakingly stapled together. This is cargo cult punk rock and indulges in all the empty aesthetics of counter culture without understanding the reason they existed in the first place. Xerox zines rose in prominence because they were a "printing press" that was an order of magnitude cheaper than any alternative. People wanted to disseminate knowledge and photo-copiers were the most expedient way to do that. Today we have blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Digital Ocean, etc. but they've become so commonplace that the older generation looks back on a "simpler time", when kids could put on a show by "word of mouth". There was a show I just saw that said "the internet is how you advertise by word of mouth now". I think there will always be people in a generation that will be nostalgiac for the previous decade they weren't part of. The only thing i can say is that there will always be an older generation talking about their glory days of when they scored the winning touchdown in high school and a portion of the younger generation that gets caught up in that narrative. I feel like I'm living in an age of wonder. [1] https://schwefelgelb.bandcamp.com/album/dahinter-das-gesicht https://schwefelgelb.bandcamp.com/album/dahinter-das-gesicht [2] https://secondstill.bandcamp.com/ https://secondstill.bandcamp.com/ [3] https://lineaaspera.bandcamp.com/ https://lineaaspera.bandcamp.com/ [4] https://boyharsher.bandcamp.com/album/lesser-man-ep https://boyharsher.bandcamp.com/album/lesser-man-ep [5] https://comtruise.bandcamp.com/album/in-decay https://comtruise.bandcamp.com/album/in-decay [6] https://airglow-strat.bandcamp.com/album/airglow-memory-bank https://airglow-strat.bandcamp.com/album/airglow-memory-bank [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Synthwave_musicians https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Synthwave_musicians [8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire_(TV_series... [9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed-ish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed-ish [10] https://www.adafruit.com/product/3400 https://www.adafruit.com/product/3400 [11] https://www.2600.com/content/message-our-readers https://www.2600.com/content/message-our-readers

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

supernova87a 6y ago

It's probably like when the first cellphone inventors imagined the freedom and productivity that portability would offer humanity. And didn't realize that a sizeable portion of the eventual effort would turn into serving up cute cat videos and trying to prevent people from yelling at each other based on fake news.

bcaa7f3a8bbc 6y ago
> would turn into serving up cute cat videos Cute cats, per se, is not the problem. Did you know the "Cute cat theory of digital activism" [0]? Literally, the first online cat meme posters imagined the freedom and productivity that cats would offer to digital liberty. > trying to prevent people from yelling at each other based on fake news This turns out to be a much bigger problem that couldn't be solved using cat memes. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cute_cat_theory_of_digital_activism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cute_cat_theory_of_digital_act...

andrepd 6y ago

> the free and fast flow of information enables decentralization, and would liberate us from all the old forms of political control. Of course, it turned out precisely the opposite.

shadowgovt 6y ago
The fundamental flaw in the original thinking on this topic was that people saw the digital frontier as a new wild west of sorts, where old rules and established lines of power did not apply and a bold, adventurous spirit could carve out a new realm for themselves. The thinking wasn't wrong at all. It merely failed to extrapolate to what happened to the American wild west after the era of the gold rush. The vast, vast majority of humanity doesn't want to live in the wild west. And when given the option between a laissez-faire no rules world where those with better understanding of the natural rules triumph and a structured society, structure wins every time. Nobody is really forced to use Facebook. Or Twitter. Or Google. Or Amazon. But they are, all of them, vastly more convenient than the DIY alternatives which were the only option when the internet was young.
- ethbro 6y ago
  The gold rush is a good metaphor. Few are willing to dash off into the wilderness for no good reason, but many are willing to do so for a chance at profit. The problem with profit potential is, after it becomes profit likelihood, the second, following wave is inevitably better capitalized. The only way to survive is to strike it big and then entrench hard enough that you can't be dislodged with any surfeit of competitor funding (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Facebook). And then, congratulations, you've become what you used to hate.

gz5 6y ago

well worth the time to read. multiple times. >the free and fast flow of information enables decentralization i was a believer. big time. starting in 99, was helping democratize telecom via VoIP. ate up long tail theory like candy. but now i think we were incorrect in thinking the problem was only on the supply side - the monopolies (of that day) control of the supply side. that was a problem, but there are two sides of the hose. the other side of the hose is us. 24 hours in a day. 1440 minutes. minutes increasingly bombarded as the supply side of the hose has widened, and the hose now lives in our pockets instead of on a piece of furniture. i still believe decentralization will occur - simply because things do usually balance over time (or at least the pendulum moves back and forth) - but won't it take more than 'fixing' the supply side?

jdkee 6y ago
https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence

ksec 6y ago

Off topic. >Nevertheless, the late 90s was a great age to be alive with that dream. Music, Art, Tech, everything seems to be better in the 80-90s. An era, just like the article shown and described where people put heart and soul into it. I have been thinking a lot about this, still not entirely sure why. And this isn't nostalgia, I have seen many not born in the era thinking they missed the "golden age". Live is definitely better in post 00s, but something is different. Something is missing.

iso1631 6y ago
Everything was always better in the past Many people say the golden age was the 60s. Or the 20s. Or the 70s. Or the 00s. Or the 50s. Probably not the 30s and 40s. There was certainly a change in the 90s, the fall of the Berlin Wall, but pre-9/11, was a major change in western culture, and that feeling of American superiority having "won" the cold war
- JoeAltmaier 6y ago
  Perhaps the golden age was, "when you were 21".
- jacobush 6y ago
  I know 12 year olds who "miss" the 80s. So I think there is more to the 80s than pure nostalgia from those who were there.
  - iso1631 6y ago
    When I was a kid there were 12 year olds that missed the 60s. Nothing to do with their parents waxing lyrical about how great the 60s were.
abetusk 6y ago
Yeah, no. Sorry to be so contrary but this sounds like nostalgia, not reality. In many ways, we've reached the "plateau of productivity" for many of the promises of the 80s and 90s and I suspect that's why this sentiment persists. The reality of now is not as good as the promise of the 80s-90s but it's definitely better than the reality of the 80s and 90s. I remember talking to people in the 80s and 90s and them talking with reverence about bands like Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, Jesus and Mary Chain etc. and me just "not getting it". I realize why, I just didn't like them very much. In theory I liked this type of music, but the bands were all not very polished and there was just something missing. Cut to years, small bands that would have been forgotten or fizzled out before they could release anything all have an internet presence and do this type of sound better than the bands they're emulating: Schwefelgelb [1], Second Still [2], Linea Aspera [3], Boy Harsher [4] etc. Want 80s synthesizer music that's orders of magnitude better than the 80s? Try Com Truise [5], Airglow [6], or a host of onther "synthwave" musicians [7]. And in terms of tech, there's just absolutely no comparison. We can literally buy full fledged GHz linux boxes for under $20 that run at 1.25W [10]. For the intrepid, they can create radio from software with a USB dongle that costs under $50. Want to make a custom computer? Have it assembled in China and shipped for a minuscule cost of what it would have been 2-3 decades ago. One of the things I think you're forgetting about the 80s and 90s was just how stark it was. You should check out shows like "Halt and Catch Fire" [8] and "Mixed-ish" [9]. They both highlight portions of that time period that were awesome but they also show just how shitty portions of that time period were. You're forgetting the stack of floppies, the game booklets with beautiful art only to find games that looked like pixelated blobs, the waiting for the ISP line to stop being busy, the shitty television with 10 minutes of ads for every 20 minutes of content. A telling example is the magazine 2600. When I was growing up, 2600 was a coveted magazine that was full of promise about the secrets of the burgeoning tech world. It was quintessentially cyberpunk and it was great. Cut to now, 2600 is still in circulation but only up until very recently [11] refused to have an online presence, only putting out a paper magazine and being sold in chains like Barnes and Nobles. They became increasingly irrelevant with the access to knowledge on the internet and then doubly so by refusing to graduate from their 80s aesthetic. I recently had someone show me their zine that was either printed or "authentically" xeroxed and painstakingly stapled together. This is cargo cult punk rock and indulges in all the empty aesthetics of counter culture without understanding the reason they existed in the first place. Xerox zines rose in prominence because they were a "printing press" that was an order of magnitude cheaper than any alternative. People wanted to disseminate knowledge and photo-copiers were the most expedient way to do that. Today we have blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Digital Ocean, etc. but they've become so commonplace that the older generation looks back on a "simpler time", when kids could put on a show by "word of mouth". There was a show I just saw that said "the internet is how you advertise by word of mouth now". I think there will always be people in a generation that will be nostalgiac for the previous decade they weren't part of. The only thing i can say is that there will always be an older generation talking about their glory days of when they scored the winning touchdown in high school and a portion of the younger generation that gets caught up in that narrative. I feel like I'm living in an age of wonder. [1] https://schwefelgelb.bandcamp.com/album/dahinter-das-gesicht https://schwefelgelb.bandcamp.com/album/dahinter-das-gesicht [2] https://secondstill.bandcamp.com/ https://secondstill.bandcamp.com/ [3] https://lineaaspera.bandcamp.com/ https://lineaaspera.bandcamp.com/ [4] https://boyharsher.bandcamp.com/album/lesser-man-ep https://boyharsher.bandcamp.com/album/lesser-man-ep [5] https://comtruise.bandcamp.com/album/in-decay https://comtruise.bandcamp.com/album/in-decay [6] https://airglow-strat.bandcamp.com/album/airglow-memory-bank https://airglow-strat.bandcamp.com/album/airglow-memory-bank [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Synthwave_musicians https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Synthwave_musicians [8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire_(TV_series... [9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed-ish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed-ish [10] https://www.adafruit.com/product/3400 https://www.adafruit.com/product/3400 [11] https://www.2600.com/content/message-our-readers https://www.2600.com/content/message-our-readers