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In my younger days I was a loud crusader for keeping the web (and Internet in general) as free as possible both in the "free speech" and "free beer" sense of th

by ivoras 5y ago

In my younger days I was a loud crusader for keeping the web (and Internet in general) as free as possible both in the "free speech" and "free beer" sense of the word, but now I see that I was wrong. What's now going on is that the huge mess of SEO techniques and ad tracking is solving one particular problem: monetisation. I don't know exactly how would the web have spread if the early HTTP monetisation codes, headers and efforts were actually continued (like the "402 Payment Required" response), but I do believe now that not having monetisation built in to the new medium has caused the majority of freedom and surveillance issues today. The web is not just fucked up. We fucked it up by not planning far enough.

carapace 5y ago
That's a very interesting perspective, and one you don't hear a lot. For at least a small subset of early Internet and computer pioneers there was a sense that technology would usher in a new post-scarcity or even post-money era. The "Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" gives a torrid and breathy example of the kind of thought and rhetoric floating around: https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence In hindsight it seems so naive to me. I don't wonder that we got blindsided.
- ivoras 5y ago
  Right. I remember the Declaration, for us growing up at the time, it was an era all filled up with bringing to life what Neuromancer and Snow Crash talked about. Maybe we'll get another chance with the metaverse thing.
flyinghamster 5y ago
There is Xanadu [0], which features a royalty mechanism and authentication. Early planning began in 1960, but it didn't help that Xanadu became one of the world's longest-running vaporware efforts. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Xanadu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Xanadu

by ivoras 5y ago

carapace 5y ago

That's a very interesting perspective, and one you don't hear a lot. For at least a small subset of early Internet and computer pioneers there was a sense that technology would usher in a new post-scarcity or even post-money era. The "Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" gives a torrid and breathy example of the kind of thought and rhetoric floating around: https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence In hindsight it seems so naive to me. I don't wonder that we got blindsided.

ivoras 5y ago
Right. I remember the Declaration, for us growing up at the time, it was an era all filled up with bringing to life what Neuromancer and Snow Crash talked about. Maybe we'll get another chance with the metaverse thing.

flyinghamster 5y ago

There is Xanadu [0], which features a royalty mechanism and authentication. Early planning began in 1960, but it didn't help that Xanadu became one of the world's longest-running vaporware efforts. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Xanadu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Xanadu