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> The web has been contaminated ever since SEO. Maybe AI will kill the web. So it goes. This statement kinda blows my mind. You contemplate the destruction of

> The web has been contaminated ever since SEO. Maybe AI will kill the web. So it goes. This statement kinda blows my mind. You contemplate the destruction of the web, the single most world-changing invention of the last century, possibly the last millennium, a force that has democratized access to information, accelerated scientific progress and connected people around the world, the technology that one way or another played a huge role in the lives of every person on this site, and you shrug? I see your Kurt Vonnegut and raise you Dylan Thomas: Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

greenie_beans 1y ago
rage against a tsunami
JKCalhoun 1y ago
I know it's cynical. But I see more and more the destructive aspects of the web seeming to now eclipse the positives. It may be age related too. I had lived some 30-plus years before the Web became a thing ... and I kind of liked the 70's and 80's.
_rpxpx 1y ago
Uehreka, I'm sorry, but this is such utter tosh. This is the sort of rabid utopianism I remember hearing about the web in 1996. But then of course it was predictive - at least a bit excusable. Take a hard a look at the actual history of the web in the last 30 years. "Democracy"...what? It is a story of corporate seizure of commons leading to the frankly nightmarish scenario we are in now, heading full steam into a total surveillance techno-fascist neofeudalism. Here's an innovation in the last millennium that did actually democratize access to information: Libraries. Simple public libraries. Look at the message that is engraved over the door of one of my favorite libraries, the central library in Edinburgh, Scotland. These places were palaces for public learning. Contrast them to the grotty, advert-saturated, casino of the web. Also, the calm, reflective, intelligent state of mind they cultivated. How many people can even read a book anymore, cover to cover? Or even a single page without electronic interruption?

greenie_beans 1y ago

rage against a tsunami

JKCalhoun 1y ago

I know it's cynical. But I see more and more the destructive aspects of the web seeming to now eclipse the positives. It may be age related too. I had lived some 30-plus years before the Web became a thing ... and I kind of liked the 70's and 80's.

_rpxpx 1y ago

Uehreka, I'm sorry, but this is such utter tosh. This is the sort of rabid utopianism I remember hearing about the web in 1996. But then of course it was predictive - at least a bit excusable. Take a hard a look at the actual history of the web in the last 30 years. "Democracy"...what? It is a story of corporate seizure of commons leading to the frankly nightmarish scenario we are in now, heading full steam into a total surveillance techno-fascist neofeudalism. Here's an innovation in the last millennium that did actually democratize access to information: Libraries. Simple public libraries. Look at the message that is engraved over the door of one of my favorite libraries, the central library in Edinburgh, Scotland. These places were palaces for public learning. Contrast them to the grotty, advert-saturated, casino of the web. Also, the calm, reflective, intelligent state of mind they cultivated. How many people can even read a book anymore, cover to cover? Or even a single page without electronic interruption?