Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Jaron Lanier

How did it take me so long to come across this guy? The only time that I've seen him before (I think) is in the photo book Dreads. But this article is simply brilliant, and I'll be spending many happy hours searching for more stuff by him.
The article to which I refer to above refers to the internet and the hive mind (as witnessed in sites such as wikipedia.) Here is a brief extract:
I've participated in a number of elite, well-paid wikis and Meta-surveys lately and have had a chance to observe the results. I have even been part of a wiki about wikis. What I've seen is a loss of insight and subtlety, a disregard for the nuances of considered opinions, and an increased tendency to enshrine the official or normative beliefs of an organization. Why isn't everyone screaming about the recent epidemic of inappropriate uses of the collective? It seems to me the reason is that bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology.

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