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I think it is useful to draw a distinction between a
searcher’s internet and a feeder's internet. I thought
about calling the latter a “consumer’s internet” but
1) I like it sounding close to “bottom feeder” and
2) information isn’t really “consumed” in the sense that it
is used up. Think of that lovely quote by Jefferson:
He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction
himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his
taper [candle] at mine, receives light without darkening
me.
Furthermore, if we spend our time and energy propagating
ideas, we wouldn't spend as much of our money on other
things. And we would use less resources.
This is the core basis of any optimistic scenario I see for
humanity -- for all the ways corruption and wealth
concentration works against human welfare there seems to be
another force at play, offering potentially exponential
increases in our understanding, the stuff of Buckminster
Fuller's dreams and pronouncements. This force is our
hope, whereas greed and habits of domination are the
threats to all but the smallest sliver of elites.
When I come to the internet to answer some question of
mine, making for a searcher's internet, I almost always
discover interesting new things, including some of the
best websites. I also feel more alive. However, when I
spend my time with the bottom feeding internet, that
lovely web 2.0/anti-social media churning item after item
down the anxiety-fraught zombie slot machine, I almost
never open up new paths. And I almost always feel less
alive than when I started.
There are some interesting people on, say, twitter, but
either they use it one-sidedly, or they have a much
stronger sense of self than I do. But even admitting that,
I can never find a way to effectively filter for quality
with anti-social media. No matter what I do, I get too
much of what I don't need, including a lot of things I
Since I started developing these thoughts and then used
them to change my information diet, I have become much
happier with the internet, and my world has become a much
more interesting place.
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I'd love to hear from people. My email is the handle minus
"net" (work by Voltaire that starts with "c"), at sdf.org.