n e u f n e u f: the real boon of the internet

07 September 2009

the real boon of the internet

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I don't think the internet is going to be good for getting better people in office. That's clearly as delusory as it has been through any other medium. I think we are stuck with it for news, but will have to work many times harder than almost anyone is willing to work to come up with stuff most closely resembling cogent and true. That will forever remain better than the alternative, but it's still way too hard and time consuming for most. The internet is the perfect tool for covert ops, agents provocateurs and disinformation campaigns. It is a spectacular medium for character assassination and for the elevation of ill-motivated charming people to gather more rubes.

The place where it will end up having done the very most good, beside all the entertainment and community stuff, is to get higher education to more people. It will be full of all the same pitfalls as the rest of our lives online, but, especially for autodidacts, the education opportunities online are already outright dazzling and can only get better.

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