The Prophecies of Q

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/qanon-nothing-can-stop-what-is-coming/610567/

by adrianN • 6 years ago

8 2 6 years ago

This is a great line: "The power of the internet was understood early on, but the full nature of that power—its ability to shatter any semblance of shared reality, undermining civil society and democratic governance in the process—was not."

I was explaining this recently to my 18yo son. I worked at various web startups, Yahoo and then Nokia. While we were building the web in the 90s, Web 2.0 in the 2000s and right up to the mobile revolution in about 2010 even, I was convinced that instant access to the world's information would be an unquestionably positive thing, and that as a result, people as a whole would be more educated and knowledgeable about the world around them, with all the benefits that implies.

Then, it all went sideways. Looking back, it was naive to think information wouldn't be corrupted by bad actors and that hyper-personalization would create such divisions and ignorance. But here we are.

One good thing, I guess, can be found watching the movie "Teachers" from the 1980s where a kid sues his high school because he graduated completely illiterate. That doesn't happen any more. They may not read well, but every kid in the U.S. is literate now. Enough to use a little computer in their pocket at least... so they can post to Twitter about how the world is actually flat, and 5G is the cause of the novel Coronavirus. Sigh.

Maybe it's just a phase? Once the world gets used to all this new technology, things will settle down?

adrianN• 6 years ago

One can only hope so. I don't think that democracies will be able to survive the current effects of the Internet for much longer.

The Prophecies of Q

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