I've gave up following the uptodate politics

[Baruch]

Living in a tree, eating a banana is under-rated.

[Unbeliever]

I like bananas, but I don't much care to live in a banana split republic.

[Baruch]

I like bananas, but I don't much care to live in a banana split republic.

A banana split is vanilla, chocolate, strawberry ice cream .. multicultural.  Political mavens love a single party state, and only allow a single flavor.

[SGOS]

The Internet has thrown us into the Misinformation Age, so it's rather pointless trying to keep up to date on all he latest misinformation.

[Mike Cl]

The Internet has thrown us into the Misinformation Age, so it's rather pointless trying to keep up to date on all he latest misinformation.

And I regard that as total irony.  When it first showed up I thought it would work the opposite--make real information and facts much easier to find and use.  but in those days I did not realize just how stupid the American people really were.

[Hydra009]

As the saying goes, "You only find what you search for."

[SGOS]

And I regard that as total irony.  When it first showed up I thought it would work the opposite...

I thought the same thing, but I believed as you did on the basis of faith.  I never thought through the implications rationally. I was told about the benefits, but no one warned of the unintended consequences.  If someone did, I wasn't paying attention.  Overall, I thought an open resource would be cool, but little more than that.  I underestimated everything, absolutely everything, including the potential social and economic value and the good and the bad.

As the saying goes, "You only find what you search for."

That's true, and I even realized before hand that was possible, but like everything else about the project, I underestimated man's lack of critical thinking skills, as well as his lack of understanding of his own personal biases.  While I sat back comfortably in my naivety, entrepreneurs were figuring out how to make money with it, evildoers were figuring out how to control the minds of others, and our leaders were figuring out how to use it for their own personal power.  And outright criminals were planning new scams.

[Baruch]

And I regard that as total irony.  When it first showed up I thought it would work the opposite--make real information and facts much easier to find and use.  but in those days I did not realize just how stupid the American people really were.

I must not be an American.  I am old, but I cross check, under a shadow of skepticism.  I expect propaganda has been going on a long long time.  Did you hear the one about King Alexander is the son of Zeus?  The Oracle of Ammon confirmed it.

[Mike Cl]

As the saying goes, "You only find what you search for."

This point was first made evident for me while in college.  One prof gave an assignment to prove/disprove a point--for example, how did WWI start; pick a hypotheses and gather data to both support and attack that hypotheses.  It was eye-opening for me.  It became evident that to 'prove' a point it was much easier to start with a bias and then cherry pick the data that supports that point and ignore the rest.  Not accurate, but much easier.  The internet makes that cherry picking easier.   

[Mike Cl]

Unintended consequences.  Doesn't that seem to be the real earthshaking turn of events in almost everything?  As a young adult forward I did not exactly have a love affair with phones.  I never liked that they could shatter my peace at any moment--and for some reason, they could not go unanswered.  So, when cell phones came out I did not think I'd ever want one.  Now, I have to have one; but I mostly text and play games or view the news with it; I don't usually use it to call anybody.  My daughter (school principal) regards it as a moving desk--she says she is much more efficient with one than without.  And now I find myself taking pictures of everything :).  Haven't figured out how to use (too lazy is all) the video part, but when I do, look out!  And I only see the cell phone becoming more and more a part of your hand and effecting more and more of what we do and how we do it--spying more and more on each other, for example.

[Baruch]

You will have to get your eyes fixed, and you hair made straight and dyed black, to improve your Chinese Internet socialist score.

[SGOS]

Unintended consequences.  Doesn't that seem to be the real earthshaking turn of events in almost everything?

Who would have ever thought that hacking the internet would become a growth industry?

[Hydra009]

I'd argue that the internet really is a marvelous tool and on paper, it's an absolute gamechanger.  Remember trying to figure out if a movie was good before the internet? Or finding a particular book? Or learning about, I dunno, physics.  Or even just conversing with people on different continents, like we're doing now.

And then there's stuff no one had any idea would be happening on the internet, like using the internet to leak nefarious activity going on in huge, powerful organizations, organize protests, track down some trashy animal abuser, or come to the aid of someone through a rough time.

Unfortunately, a lot of bad actors jumped on the internet craze and a lot of its bad reputation is attributable to them.

[Mike Cl]

Hydra, I agree with your assessment.  I find the internet to be a fantastic tool and I love using it.  I do depend upon it for much that I do. Like most things--it not so much what it is, it's how you use it.

I don't know if this falls under the 'unintended' uses list, but all new technologies are used by the porn industry.  And I'd even suggest it not only uses all of the new technologies, but helps transform and change the existing ones.  When new tech shows up, porn already has a plan and has most likely already been using it.  I think this is true from before the printing of the first book--and has continued to the present moment.   

[SGOS]

I remember shortly after I got into computers, which was shortly before the Internet, often thinking, "You know someone should write a program that does thus and so," only to be informed that it was called "something or other" and had been around for three years.

And I'd be an obvious liar to say I didn't have much use for the internet.  I've been sitting in this chair since 6 this morning, which is something I'm not very proud of, but usually I'm not this bad about it.