Think about it. We had the opportunity to use humankind's biggest repository of data, a worldwide Library of Alexandria, to solve every age-old and modern problem, and even get us to the stars.
And what have we done with it? Turned it into a massive porn, propaganda, and censorship machine, to secure power for those who already had it and oppress everyone else.
I first encountered this back in the early '80s when I logged onto the local library's bbs. I was all excited about being able to collaborate, share ideas, etc. with this wonderful new communication tool. Everyone else, not so much.
I really miss bbses. Partly for the hookups and meeting genuinely interesting people, but also for the mud games, and the occasional "wtf is this" moment where you download some interesting .txt or document and it enhances your knowledge base. Kinda miss usenet too. Oh, and the ascii art.
Back around the turn of the century, I started hanging out on a local chat room and to make a long story short, actually started a thing where the participants would meet regularly at the local watering hole and attend events together. I can relate to everything you said; even had my own BBS briefly, with "dazzling" ASCII art.
But as much as I've enjoyed computers and technology in the past 40+ years, I would NOT be sad if it all disappeared and we had to go back to actually dealing with people in person, resolve our differences face-to-face, and so forth. I would miss CREE LED lightbulbs and laser gunsights, however.
Think about it. We had the opportunity to use humankind's biggest repository of data, a worldwide Library of Alexandria, to solve every age-old and modern problem, and even get us to the stars.
And what have we done with it? Turned it into a massive porn, propaganda, and censorship machine, to secure power for those who already had it and oppress everyone else.
Uncle Ted was right.
I first encountered this back in the early '80s when I logged onto the local library's bbs. I was all excited about being able to collaborate, share ideas, etc. with this wonderful new communication tool. Everyone else, not so much.
I really miss bbses. Partly for the hookups and meeting genuinely interesting people, but also for the mud games, and the occasional "wtf is this" moment where you download some interesting .txt or document and it enhances your knowledge base. Kinda miss usenet too. Oh, and the ascii art.
You're making me feel old...
Back around the turn of the century, I started hanging out on a local chat room and to make a long story short, actually started a thing where the participants would meet regularly at the local watering hole and attend events together. I can relate to everything you said; even had my own BBS briefly, with "dazzling" ASCII art.
But as much as I've enjoyed computers and technology in the past 40+ years, I would NOT be sad if it all disappeared and we had to go back to actually dealing with people in person, resolve our differences face-to-face, and so forth. I would miss CREE LED lightbulbs and laser gunsights, however.