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http://www.abc.com.au/rn/philosopherszo ... 78536.htm#So, how long will it take for people to realise that wikipedia isn't working? Will it take another half-year? Will it take ten years? I'll tell you what I worry about, and the reason why I think this is so important.
The way that digital culture affects the world is different from the way previous cultures affected the world. What happens with digital stuff is it's not so much what people like me or anyone else says, but it's the structure of the tools we use. And since the internet and computers are what connect us with each other and
they're what connect us with our own memories more and more, you can have
ideas that are built into the very structure of the tools that become quite important.
So what I'm worried about is if this Wiki thing really gets locked in place in the way the internet develops, then
a generation that grows up in it could be very vulnerable to mob behaviours and social crises. Right now there's no question that the principal problems that the world faces are not the ones related to anything we're talking about here.
The world of fundamentalist religious people and the question of the
oil economy and
global warming and all these other things are so much more important and influential, but as we look to 10 or 20 years from now, the influence of computers and the internet will grow and grow because it's so deeply ingrained, and at that time, little things like how prevalent collectivism is within the tools that we use, will become big things, they'll become more and more amplified and more and more influential.
And so I do think it's very important to criticise these things now while they're still in their formative stages than to try to soften the negative qualities of what we'll end up with when it becomes ever more influential.
Sorry I lost you. You are saying exactly what?
One or two sentences please ...