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It is a bicycle for the mind. Remember back when if you wanted to learn about a topic, you had to travel to a library, spend a couple hours looking up books in
by jonnycomputer 5y ago
It is a bicycle for the mind. Remember back when if you wanted to learn about a topic, you had to travel to a library, spend a couple hours looking up books in a card catalogue, and then find 1 book, that maybe answers your question. I'm constantly using the internet to learn new things, to learn about all kinds of things (e.g. Californian urchin galls, best way to process small branches for firewood, the use bison horn fire carriers among Plains Indians, the grub hoe, etc. etc.; I'm constantly using Google Lens to identify plants in my area, which ones are native, which ones invasive, etc.)
The problem is something else. The problem is that the internet is more than one thing. It is a couch for the lazy, a distraction for the procrastinator, a massive entertainment delivery device; and most of the monetary value of the internet doesn't come from it being a bicycle for the mind, but for the other things.
Not everyone chooses to ride on the bicycle. Instead of, say, reading Wikipedia, they read Infowars. The world would be a much better place if a lot of people spent their time reading Wikipedia (with all of its faults) instead of scrolling Twitter, Facebook, and slanted news sites like Breitbart, CNN, Fox, etc. etc. etc.
- ergot_vacation 5y agoPut another way, computers and the Internet are a tool to accelerate the process of becoming more of what you are. If what you are is a curious, humble person looking to understand the world better, it can help with that. If you're a vicious self-promoter looking to crush everyone on your way to the top, it can help with that too. If you're a terrorist looking for how to build a bomb or fly a plane or use certain guns, again, it can help. Computers are information. Giving people access to information does not magically make them moral, or curious, or thoughtful. It just amplifies what they were already trying to do.
- jonnycomputer 5y agoAn amplifier of the mind. (:
- atomashpolskiy 5y agoThis sounds too simplistic (idealistic?). Maybe computers at their core are indeed pure, neutral information, but internet is definitely more than just that. It also amplifies all kinds of adverse mass psychology effects, rewards herd behavior, enables propaganda wars, provides means to monitor and control population at unprecedented scale, etc. I'm not saying that you're completely wrong, but I think you might be willing to see only the brighter side of it.
- jonnycomputer 5y agoI like this, except that I think it misses that the internet doesn't just give people a way to do whatever they were going to do, but: 1. creates a giant, complex vector for the transfer and recombination of ideas, and attitudes: it's an influence and innovation engine 2. facilitates certain kinds of collective action and organizing, from traditional interest groups, to flash mobs, and getting ratioed. 3. facilitates certain kinds of illicit or illegal behaviors, activities, etc while making other kinds much harder. Anonymity is difficult, widespread surveillance is the norm; but you can hold entire pieces of infrastructure hostage, like oil pipelines, from your couch. 4. creates a new set of dynamics that we are only coming to recognize. for example, social media platforms like Facebook make it like we've all become more densely packed together, and we've not really developed a set of norms to accommodate getting along at that level of density.