Jason Lanier has written an interesting essay DIGITAL MAOISM:
The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism in which he addresses some of the issues related to the hive-mind collectivism of Web 2.0 phenomena. In my work I think about the effect and use of collective software. I also find myself justifying it, explaining its benefits to my colleagues. This essay and the responses on Edge is an excellent starting point for an amplification of some of the issues related to the use and reliance on collective software.
Here’s a quote
“No, the problem is in the way the Wikipedia has come to be regarded and used; how it’s been elevated to such importance so quickly. And that is part of the larger pattern of the appeal of a new online collectivism that is nothing less than a resurgence of the idea that the collective is all-wise, that it is desirable to have influence concentrated in a bottleneck that can channel the collective with the most verity and force. This is different from representative democracy, or meritocracy. This idea has had dreadful consequences when thrust upon us from the extreme Right or the extreme Left in various historical periods. The fact that it’s now being re-introduced today by prominent technologists and futurists, people who in many cases I know and like, doesn’t make it any less dangerous.”
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And today’s special is ..
But the point is not to transform the world into an immaculate place; it is to sweep with a sincere heart. – Gary Thorp
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