Sunday 26th May 2024

Topics:

• In the early days of the Internet, we thought it would bring enlightenment via free knowledge, "the greatest library ever known".
• Instead we have hate, division, toxicity...where did it all go wrong?
• The optimists need to regroup.
• I still remember the first time I dialed onto the Internet, using an old PC with a modem in a public library.
• It was so exciting, I had all of that information at my finger tips!
• In the early days in the 1990s, we we genuinely excited about the "information superhighway", but now we have the "disinformation swamp".
• There used to be a technical barrier to entry to publish something online: you needed to be able to write some basic HTML code, and upload it to a server somewhere.
• Now, with the advent of user-generated platforms like X, Facebook, and TikTok, ANYONE can publish content online from their smartphones with no effort required.
• As a result, we are swamped in poor-quality content.
• Imagine a library where each book is the random stream of consciousness of anonymous Internet users, shouting abuse at each other. That is the library we have built, and it's terrible.
• I no longer believe it is a net good.
• The most perverse trend of all is the growth of technology skepticism online, with neo-Luddites using technology to spread their dislike of technology, without any sense of hypocrisy.
• We are a few news cycles away from angry righteous mobs attacking data centers, encouraged to do so via their smartphones.
• What I am working on this week:
  • Behind on dev projects this week.
• Media I am enjoying this week:
  • The Revenge of the Rose by Michael Moorcock. https://centipedepress.com/fantasy/elric5u.html

Download

techleaderpro-2024-week-21.mp3

File details: 8.9 MB MP3, 6 mins 10 secs duration.

Title music is "Hidden Beyond" by Aiyo, licensed via www.epidemicsound.com

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