…making internet hosts more liable for the content they host, scaling in proportion to popularity - would, I think, push in the right direction. It is a policy directly against the "growth at all costs" behavior….
Um, how? Liability will simply make unpopular ideas verboten. We're already seeing that in the current world, with CoVID, where even discussing alternatives to jabs is akin to shouting "Yay, Hitler!". I can't count the number of people I know who've gotten the ban hammer dropped on them. These private entities have suppressed alternative discussions, even mentions, from Day 1.
It's gotten so bad, I did a show or two about it, noting that the tit-for-tat atmosphere of "No, YOU are a poopy-head!" shouting has created what George Monbiot called a hyporeality vortex, where no one can be assured of anything, anytime, anywhere.
Which means… the world you suggest, again, which is:
…more grassroots, and it's going to have to be built on deep, acrid cynicism for almost all online interaction, especially with strangers.
Has arrived already. People have extended their acrid cynicism to real people in the real world, all based on which silly world view the Others hold.
Further, I see nothing advantageous about AR/VR (although the few systems I've seen are pretty darned cool, at least for a couple of hours). To be immersive, they need to be, well, built on exactly the same expensive architecture that powers the current behemoths, meaning I can see no way these corporate monsters will get any less corporate-capture-y.
(And, once again, credit to William Gibson, for predicting all of this three decades ago.)
Seconded, though, by his own admission, he missed cell phones, let alone smart phones. I do remember a character in the Sprawl series running for a phone booth…. That's okay, though. In Snow Crash, Stephenson built a scene around a guy returning a VHS to the rental store.
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Um, how? Liability will simply make unpopular ideas verboten. We're already seeing that in the current world, with CoVID, where even discussing alternatives to jabs is akin to shouting "Yay, Hitler!". I can't count the number of people I know who've gotten the ban hammer dropped on them. These private entities have suppressed alternative discussions, even mentions, from Day 1.
It's gotten so bad, I did a show or two about it, noting that the tit-for-tat atmosphere of "No, YOU are a poopy-head!" shouting has created what George Monbiot called a hyporeality vortex, where no one can be assured of anything, anytime, anywhere.
Which means… the world you suggest, again, which is:
…more grassroots, and it's going to have to be built on deep, acrid cynicism for almost all online interaction, especially with strangers.
Has arrived already. People have extended their acrid cynicism to real people in the real world, all based on which silly world view the Others hold.
Further, I see nothing advantageous about AR/VR (although the few systems I've seen are pretty darned cool, at least for a couple of hours). To be immersive, they need to be, well, built on exactly the same expensive architecture that powers the current behemoths, meaning I can see no way these corporate monsters will get any less corporate-capture-y.
Perhaps I didn't mention it, but in my tear-down-the-walled-garden scenario, personal information capture would be strictly prohibited. Yes, it would mean dishwashers would not send personal information overseas; waaah.
(And, once again, credit to William Gibson, for predicting all of this three decades ago.)
Seconded, though, by his own admission, he missed cell phones, let alone smart phones. I do remember a character in the Sprawl series running for a phone booth…. That's okay, though. In Snow Crash, Stephenson built a scene around a guy returning a VHS to the rental store.