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I thought this was the coolest thing in '96. All these years later it just reads like self parody. The Internet is very much a part of the terrestrial world,
by gr0nk 15y ago
I thought this was the coolest thing in '96. All these years later it just reads like self parody. The Internet is very much a part of the terrestrial world, and governments do possess methods of enforcement we have true reason to fear. It sucks, but grandiose proclamations don't change that.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- pnathan 15y agoThere was a tremendous amount of techno-utopianism in the early 90s. The internet & computers would bring peace, love, erase national borders, enable society to be utterly transformed into a global place without work, strife, etc. Mondo 2000, early Wired, and Rushkoff were big proponents of that thought paradigm. I see Barlow's essay as an offshoot of that paradigm. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.
- slowpoke 15y ago>Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. We're still very much at the beginning, and it's far too early to say anything like that. If at all, we've been slightly thrown back. I still believe everything you dismissed as "techno-utopianism" to be possible one day. Social change rarely happens overnight. We have to work and fight for it.
- pnathan 15y agoOh, there's a lot of possibility out there and some of it has been realized. But, unfortunately, there was a lot of ignoring human nature going on at the time. People are simply a lot grittier than the future of the time was portrayed.