5 ms·

Reminds me of "The Machine Stops" by EM Forster, where "experts" are those that write about what other "experts" write about. Among other similarities, the sho

Reminds me of "The Machine Stops" by EM Forster, where "experts" are those that write about what other "experts" write about. Among other similarities, the short story is remarkably prescient for being written in 1909 http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html

jodrellblank 15y ago
Good, but dated and preachy (TL;DR humans make life too controlled and easy, and then they pay for it, how dare they, serves them right, harrumph, etc.). I am more interested by the continued bleating of friends for new ideas and the continued rejection of ideas throughout it than by the predictions of a worldwide communication network. 'News' aggregators and commenting systems, a hundred years ago. Makes me wonder if mining old sci-fi stories for things to build would be worthwhile.
- Silhouette 15y ago
  > I am more interested by the continued bleating of friends for new ideas and the continued rejection of ideas throughout it I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. For most people, who have (or would have) interest in a lot of different areas, there are probably already several lifetimes' worth of new ideas out there if they can only find and enjoy them. Such is the power of connecting billions of people in a global network. On the other hand, while that solves the breadth problem for those who want to develop themselves as rounded individuals, it doesn't attack the depth problem for those who want to advance a particular field of art or science that they really care about. I think we might do best at that by adopting something like academic practices of ongoing sharing and collaboration, but done on a global scale by anyone who cares, and with something way better than journals as the means of peer review and promoting the best new ideas to the top so others can expand and build on them. Of course, it needn't necessarily be an academic subject either, it could be anything from sports coaching to cookery.

jodrellblank 15y ago

Good, but dated and preachy (TL;DR humans make life too controlled and easy, and then they pay for it, how dare they, serves them right, harrumph, etc.). I am more interested by the continued bleating of friends for new ideas and the continued rejection of ideas throughout it than by the predictions of a worldwide communication network. 'News' aggregators and commenting systems, a hundred years ago. Makes me wonder if mining old sci-fi stories for things to build would be worthwhile.

Silhouette 15y ago
> I am more interested by the continued bleating of friends for new ideas and the continued rejection of ideas throughout it I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. For most people, who have (or would have) interest in a lot of different areas, there are probably already several lifetimes' worth of new ideas out there if they can only find and enjoy them. Such is the power of connecting billions of people in a global network. On the other hand, while that solves the breadth problem for those who want to develop themselves as rounded individuals, it doesn't attack the depth problem for those who want to advance a particular field of art or science that they really care about. I think we might do best at that by adopting something like academic practices of ongoing sharing and collaboration, but done on a global scale by anyone who cares, and with something way better than journals as the means of peer review and promoting the best new ideas to the top so others can expand and build on them. Of course, it needn't necessarily be an academic subject either, it could be anything from sports coaching to cookery.