The Spider in the World Wide Web About the looming two-tiered Web and how the Web is shaping “our minds and souls in ways we are only beginning to comprehend.”
Introduction by Rob Argento
There’s a spider in the Web. And it’s weaving another Web — though most are blissfully unaware. Will this Web 2.0 set us free at last? Or will it take us from World Wide Web to Web of Deceit?
We knew it was coming. All the promises of the World of Tomorrow that we grew up with in the Fifties on…was it Disney? I can’t remember exactly. But we saw it at the 1964 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows also. The world of tomorrow was sure to be heaven on earth. What with cars that would levitate and whisk us over traffic and all kinds of other wonders that would gift mere mortals with all play and no work. At long last the curses uttered against Adam and Eve would be lifted by Her Highness Technology. And pain free!
So are we there yet? I don’t think so, do you? Seems like people are working pretty hard these days, and many are beginning to wonder if they’ll ever retire in the comfort and security they had come to expect. Meanwhile, we watch as the US dollar sinks and the American industrial base continues to move offshore. But Her Highness will save us, won’t She?
Well, maybe She still has another card up Her sleeve, but I doubt that Web 2.0 is it. If anything, Her new Web is likely to vitiate the democratizing benefits of the Internet as we watch our beloved Net regress into just another protocol of cable TV with 189 varieties of Rupert Murdoch-approved sports, infotainment, weather, and pseudo-religious programming.
But how could this happen, who would do such a thing to us! Keeping in mind that the Internet is the progeny of ARPANET, itself developed by DARPA of the United States Department of Defense, might provide a clue as to what is really going on here. The Internet is ultimately part of “defense.” But who is defending whom from whom? That’s one of the many questions we hope to be exploring here at sillyConValley();
Now, for a critical take on Web 2.0 click Johann Hari’s fine article below.
