Failure Of The Possible
The current internet represents a conundrum for individuals and society
I read a recent interview with Tim Berners-Lee, the Englishman who invented what we refer to as the internet (or Internet for those who were around for the beginning). He never directly profited from his invention, yet has also spent most of his life trying to protect it. He envisioned it would transform societies, government and, yes, business for the greater good. While to some degree this has happened, much of the internet has become something quite different, with disturbing consequences.
Silicon Valley has taken the internet to places that it never bothered to consider the consequences of. And it has essentially made the internet the very opposite of what Berners-Lee hoped for: a way for humanity to come together. So he (with others) is working on a solution that will return the internet to that goal. In the beginning it was truly open, free, controlled by no one company or group. Decentralization was a fundamental asset. That has been completely changed.
Without realizing it, users around the world handed over the internet to companies that have become huge and very wealthy by generating advertising revenue from the personal information gathered in exchange for having free access to their web sites. These companies and many others didn’t have to pay to centralize the internet, and their social networks are home to both valuable connections/content and the very worst aspects of human behavior. For example, fake news on social networks is the result of those with agendas manipulating those too gullible to discern truth from lying. This is not what Berners-Lee anticipated.
He and others are working on a new version of the internet that is based on decentralization and returning the internet to everyone without control by companies. It’s not as if the founders of these companies intended them to be portals for what now dominates social media, yet they now represent the vested interests that didn’t exist when the internet first came into being. This means that decentralizing the internet will not have their support despite promises for fixing what is wrong with their websites in the current version.
I spend very little time on social networks, a practice from day one many years ago. But I’m an exception. I also avoid the insanity of dishonesty, conspiracy and mental midgetry common to social networks that apparently attracts the not-very-bright to the psychologically questionable. I refuse to engage with unintelligence. Most people I know also pay little to no attention to these websites. There’s no shortage of sites offering wisdom, insight and analysis for those wanting such traditional kinds of information. You know…truth.
Humans, of course, can take what is very good and easily find ways to misuse and abuse them. What is missing currently is a concerted effort by social media companies to wage war on these efforts. They can’t make users smarter but they can prevent much of what is inundating their sites with negative consequences. Creating wealth is always second (or should be) to taking responsibility for not making things worse in society.
Much of what is on social media is fake — far more than just the obvious fake news. Facebook estimates that at least 80 million accounts (some 4 percent of all accounts) are fake at any given moment…often pretending to be celebrities and used — among other things — to bilk fans of money. In one three month period this year Facebook deleted 583 million accounts, with software identifying 10 million or more fake accounts every week. Instagram and Twitter are losing the battle in this regard as well, with Twitter currently deleting tens of millions of fake accounts. Just more reason to avoid most of what is on social media.
Decentralizing the internet won’t remove what’s already there, but it will offer a version that doesn’t have that content and the misuse of personal data. It’s not clear exactly how this new version, code named Solid, will function and be implemented. Many coders have volunteered to work on the open source “new” internet. The commercialization of the current internet was inevitable and certainly beneficial to many in many ways, but there has been a long overdue need for an alternative that more closely aligns with the original vision and purpose of the first internet iterations.
From repression and censorship to malware to intellectual dishonesty to disinformation/misinformation to hate, the current internet represents a conundrum for individuals and society. It has simultaneously succeeded in changing the way we live for the better and for the worst. A decentralized internet wouldn’t magically fix any of this, but it would at least return us toward its original destiny of making life better for all of us in an open and safe manner. Maybe.
Addendum
Lest you think there’s not much worthwhile about the internet, this piece in the NY Times posted the day after I posted here may give you (and me) hope. It’s about the hobbyist internet, proof that the good side of the conundrum is there for the finding. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/11/technology/online-hobbyists-faith-internet.html
