Incentivised truth — the next round for the semantic web
The Semantic Web is an ideal in which every piece of content comes with a meta description about what it is. But even 25 years after the invention of the WWW, the Semantic Web is still far away. The blockchain opens a new chance to implement the dream of Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web.
Do you remember how hard it was to get meaningful information in the time before the Internet? You had to order a book, usually not knowing if what arrived days later had the answer to your question. Or you visited a library — for millennials: that’s a public building with many books that you can borrow. The books you wanted usually weren’t available.
What a relief the invention of the Internet was. Or was it? Let’s say you want to find out how to launch a successful crowdfunding (an ICO) for a new cryptocurrency. You ask the almighty oracle Google: “How to make an ICO”.
A lot of what you get is:
· Opinion
· Multiple slightly different worded copies of the initial opinion
· Advertising disguised as an opinion disguised as information
· Misleading opinions
· Answers to questions you didn’t ask
· Aged or ageless information in an ever-changing environment
· Disinformation
What you don’t learn is how to make an ICO. You might find all the raw data but you are starting with a huge handicap:
You don’t know the right questions. So you won’t find the right answers.
It’s a long and steep learning curve to identify which questions to ask. You will also have a hard time qualifying the findings.
We still have the half-knowledge we had until the 1990s, but this time we have the illusion of knowledge.
To be continued. And now you can learn more on the site:pacio.io

