[echelon]

He was wrong until he wasn't.

A lot of his words fell flat as incorrect prognostications in the 2000s and 2010s, but now that we're in the 2020s, I feel the heart and soul of what he was getting at rings true.

The bright-eyed luster faded, revealing the deeper truths.

> Every voice can be heard cheaply and instantly. The result? Every voice is heard. The cacophany more closely resembles citizens band radio, complete with handles, harrasment, and anonymous threats. When most everyone shouts, few listen.

Bingo.

> Lacking editors, reviewers or critics, the Internet has become a wasteland of unfiltered data. You don't know what to ignore and what's worth reading.

More true with each and every passing day.

> Logged onto the World Wide Web, I hunt for the date of the Battle of Trafalgar. Hundreds of files show up, and it takes 15 minutes to unravel them—one's a biography written by an eighth grader, the second is a computer game that doesn't work and the third is an image of a London monument. None answers my question

Google is starting to feel like that, especially when looking for more than simple facts.

> Won't the Internet be useful in governing? Internet addicts clamor for government reports. But when Andy Spano ran for county executive in Westchester County, N.Y., he put every press release and position paper onto a bulletin board. In that affluent county, with plenty of computer companies, how many voters logged in? Fewer than 30. Not a good omen.

Computers won't make people interested in municipal issues. At the national level, it's closer to team sports with all the betting and emotional rivalry.

> Then there are those pushing computers into schools. We're told that multimedia will make schoolwork easy and fun. Students will happily learn from animated characters while taught by expertly tailored software.Who needs teachers when you've got computer-aided education?

Schools continue to slide. Phones and tablets grant access to vast educational resources, but most kids don't use them in this way.

> And you can't tote that laptop to the beach.

Gotta find fault in this one, though. I've once or twice been goaded into being oncall during vacation. That's my own stupid fault, though.

[shiroiushi]

>> Logged onto the World Wide Web, I hunt for the date of the Battle of Trafalgar. Hundreds of files show up, and it takes 15 minutes to unravel them—.... None answers my question

>Google is starting to feel like that, especially when looking for more than simple facts.

Honestly, if it weren't for Wikipedia, the web would be almost useless for getting basic facts quickly.

[RCitronsBroker]

yup, and the Japanese internet is said to be much, much worse in this regards. Being able to find everything and anything but the fact you’ve been looking for is kind of a running gag over there, at least i was told.

[shiroiushi]

I've never heard that, though I can't say I've lived here long enough to be any kind of authority on the matter. There is a Japanese version of Wikipedia though, and my girlfriend frequently looks things up on it just like I do with the English version.

[RCitronsBroker]

take it with a grain of salt then, i haven’t lived in Japan for longer than a few weeks. I live in a german city with a large Japanese diaspora, so that’s where I got my, possibly wonky, intel

[kurthr]

Went to the beach a while back and saw a family out on towels with kids. For the hour I was there, it was the two parents out frolicking in the waves as the 10? and 14?yr old spent the entire time on their phones, although they occasionally apparently commiserated with each other by showing a picture/video (of their parents doing something embarrassing?).

Really, it wasn't that shocking. It's not like everyone loves going to the beach. Nobody was upset, just bored. But, it seemed the exact opposite of the age dynamic I expected. It could have just as easily been reversed, but I would have stil lbeen just a little sad.

At the time (1995) this came out, people were worried about "piracy" on newgroups and murder for hire through pseudonymous accounts. Instead we got DMCA takedown fraud and SWATting.

[D13Fd]

I recall many trips to the beach as a kid where I sat and read a book while other swam.

[beej71]

100%. There are a lot of things the book got wrong, but how fucked up society got wasn't one of them.