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Personally - and this may be optimistic of me - I look forward to the day when the Internet generation gets into Congress. I think - hope? - that maybe perhaps

by pnathan 16y ago

Personally - and this may be optimistic of me - I look forward to the day when the Internet generation gets into Congress. I think - hope? - that maybe perhaps we will see slightly less ridiculous legislation. Odds are that our generation will create just as asinine rules, but about something different.

kijinbear 16y ago
Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a tech-savvy "Internet generation". Most of those kids who know how to use Facebook inside and out would be just as clueless as today's senators are, if they had to deal with anything remotely technical.
- pnathan 16y ago
  That's very true. But at least they won't be in the situation of having their wife look stuff up for them[1]. I don't think it's a far stretch to expect that today's facebook-ites have an intuitive idea of what a 'link' is. [1] http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/08/13/john_mccain_technology/ http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/08/13/john_mccain_tec...
- cookiecaper 16y ago
  I would think that there are certain ideological verities that differ between the generations. A group that is intimately familiar with a new ability to create millions of perfect digital copies of almost any intellectual property will have a somewhat different perspective as to what constitutes legitimate copyright protections in an age where such extensive abilities exist. Most of our current Congresspeople know little to nothing about it, they just know they need a website for their campaign, that the design firm charges a lot of money, and that the Google can tell them the side effects of their drugs.
dodo53 16y ago
Yes, and due to accelerating change, the rate at which laws are generated/enforced by people ignorant of the subject matter will only go up.
abecedarius 16y ago
The example of the 60s generation and drug laws doesn't encourage me there.
danssig 16y ago
I would agree with you, but keep in mind the kind of people who end up in congress. If you're a tech savvy nerd you're probably not going to be that interested in sitting around having stupid arguments about even stupider topics about people who don't understand any of the presented material. I'm afraid positions of political power select for the exact kind of people who shouldn't have these positions.

by pnathan 16y ago

kijinbear 16y ago

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a tech-savvy "Internet generation". Most of those kids who know how to use Facebook inside and out would be just as clueless as today's senators are, if they had to deal with anything remotely technical.

pnathan 16y ago
That's very true. But at least they won't be in the situation of having their wife look stuff up for them[1]. I don't think it's a far stretch to expect that today's facebook-ites have an intuitive idea of what a 'link' is. [1] http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/08/13/john_mccain_technology/ http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/08/13/john_mccain_tec...
cookiecaper 16y ago
I would think that there are certain ideological verities that differ between the generations. A group that is intimately familiar with a new ability to create millions of perfect digital copies of almost any intellectual property will have a somewhat different perspective as to what constitutes legitimate copyright protections in an age where such extensive abilities exist. Most of our current Congresspeople know little to nothing about it, they just know they need a website for their campaign, that the design firm charges a lot of money, and that the Google can tell them the side effects of their drugs.

dodo53 16y ago

Yes, and due to accelerating change, the rate at which laws are generated/enforced by people ignorant of the subject matter will only go up.

abecedarius 16y ago

The example of the 60s generation and drug laws doesn't encourage me there.

danssig 16y ago

I would agree with you, but keep in mind the kind of people who end up in congress. If you're a tech savvy nerd you're probably not going to be that interested in sitting around having stupid arguments about even stupider topics about people who don't understand any of the presented material. I'm afraid positions of political power select for the exact kind of people who shouldn't have these positions.