
Bruce Sterling on the Big 5 Tech Giants - scandox
http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/495/Bruce-Sterling-and-Jon-Lebkowsky-page02.html#post42
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bbctol
"But, "the Internet" is done already. It had a great historic arc, but it
maxed out on its own excesses and unconfronted issues, much like the Space Age
and atomic power did. Anybody who still thinks "net neutrality" is the be-all
and end-all of the modern tech biz can go somewhere where they still enjoy net
neutrality -- the flatness, the small pieces loosely joined, the
permissionless innovation, etc.

Go to Iceland, maybe. Sure: go start a no-permission Internet website in
Iceland. Birgitta Jonsdottir will be nice to you, you might even get fan mail
from Wikileaks. Otherwise, it's quite like building your own crystal-set ham
radio. Nobody will stop you, because it just doesn't matter."

That hits hard, and deep, but I expect it's true. If we think of the Internet
as a geographical space, the age of exploration and setting up your own
environment is over; the age of vast companies owning both your attention and
content has begun, and I don't know if it will ever end.

~~~
scandox
But the analogy doesn't hold too well. There were hard limits on the space to
explore and live. The only limit on the Internet is the global attention span.
People who want wilderness can find it. It just isn't a hell of a lot of fun
being paid no attention whatsoever. But it does mean there are opportunities
for refragmentation.

