We're going through a phase. It'll die. It'll die, because the previous phases died, or at least evolved into something else. We're not in the Dotcom era because the market dealt with that suckiness. We're not in Eternal September because Usenet was killed by other platforms because Usenet sucked as a UX. We're not in Web 2.0 because the market decided the semantic web was a noisy hot sucky mess. We aren't all just using AOL or (OMG, do you remember this?), MSN, because, well, they sucked.
If I look around me today, I see stuff that sucks. I see a glint of the next evolution - mostly small, independent, human-centred (perhaps AI supported). It's tiny right now, but there's a good chance that the specific future I'm thinking about is already here just not evenly distributed yet.
And it's natural to not want to try and build that, and instead just accept that [waves hands] all this is a sucky mess, and it's burning us out, and you go fix it, because I'm out.
But the best way to fix this is to roll up your sleeves and fix it. Maybe going and writing a religion zine is part of that, maybe it isn't. Maybe going and becoming a farmer fixes it, but it almost certainly doesn't.
We need more talented people building the future they want to see, not running away from the one they're being handed by a roomful of billionaire morons (who consider themselves geniuses).
Take it back. We've done it before. It's not easy, but the journey is where the stories are.
> I see a glint of the next evolution - mostly small, independent, human-centred (perhaps AI supported). It's tiny right now, but there's a good chance that the specific future I'm thinking about is already here just not evenly distributed yet.
This. AI has helped me realize some really engrossing and satisfying coding projects I may have otherwise not done. The flip side is that they wouldn't have worked if business-as-usual / do-same-but-faster-with-AI was imposed upon me.
Use of AI can be highly personal and symbiotic, just as it can also be dehumanizing and parasitic.
I look forward to new ways of working both individually and structurally that yet may emerge, and it will require creative elbow grease to materialize.
I also empathize with, and support, those that feel the experience has shifted beyond something they care about, enjoy, or want to participate in. As I'm sure we all do, I have very good friends who lead very different lives from me. AI can be seen negatively as a wedge, or perhaps more positively as a tech/pasttime/activity that we yield in unique ways, making (keeping!) unique in the process.
It will be web 7 - no .0 needed 'cause it'll be the final episode. Why? Well, 7 is a special number, holy some would say, at least prime and - important - the day of rest. It took 6 symbolic days to build the earth and sky and all that moves in, on and over it and with all that done the 7th day is declared a day of rest. It'll take 6 webs with all that crawl and crap under, in and over them until the 7th iteration when someone says "leave well enough alone" and walks off to water his tomatoes or floss the cat. Others will wake up from the hypno-daze induced by the latest addition to Web 6.666, notice there's a world out there full of tomatoes in need off watering and cats due flossing and find they much prefer life there over being caught in that web. When the tomatoes' and cats' needs have been satisfied they let their friends and kin know through something eerily resembling Web 0.1 - their Web.6.666 kit doesn't work anymore since they missed a few upgrades during their absence - about their exploits and suddenly their eyes are opened wide. This is what it is all for, a means of communication. Web 7, the final frontier which looks strangely familiar.
> We're going through a phase. It'll die. It'll die, because the previous phases died, or at least evolved into something else. We're not in the Dotcom era because the market dealt with that suckiness. We're not in Eternal September because Usenet was killed by other platforms because Usenet sucked as a UX. We're not in Web 2.0 because the market decided the semantic web was a noisy hot sucky mess. We aren't all just using AOL or (OMG, do you remember this?), MSN, because, well, they sucked.
That's just nonsense. They sucked at only one thing: they couldn't extract money from users on an industrial scale. I'll take "suck" UX over modern social/ad-driven crap any time of the day.
If I look around me today, I see stuff that sucks. I see a glint of the next evolution - mostly small, independent, human-centred (perhaps AI supported). It's tiny right now, but there's a good chance that the specific future I'm thinking about is already here just not evenly distributed yet.
And it's natural to not want to try and build that, and instead just accept that [waves hands] all this is a sucky mess, and it's burning us out, and you go fix it, because I'm out.
But the best way to fix this is to roll up your sleeves and fix it. Maybe going and writing a religion zine is part of that, maybe it isn't. Maybe going and becoming a farmer fixes it, but it almost certainly doesn't.
We need more talented people building the future they want to see, not running away from the one they're being handed by a roomful of billionaire morons (who consider themselves geniuses).
Take it back. We've done it before. It's not easy, but the journey is where the stories are.
> I see a glint of the next evolution - mostly small, independent, human-centred (perhaps AI supported). It's tiny right now, but there's a good chance that the specific future I'm thinking about is already here just not evenly distributed yet.
This. AI has helped me realize some really engrossing and satisfying coding projects I may have otherwise not done. The flip side is that they wouldn't have worked if business-as-usual / do-same-but-faster-with-AI was imposed upon me.
Use of AI can be highly personal and symbiotic, just as it can also be dehumanizing and parasitic.
I look forward to new ways of working both individually and structurally that yet may emerge, and it will require creative elbow grease to materialize.
I also empathize with, and support, those that feel the experience has shifted beyond something they care about, enjoy, or want to participate in. As I'm sure we all do, I have very good friends who lead very different lives from me. AI can be seen negatively as a wedge, or perhaps more positively as a tech/pasttime/activity that we yield in unique ways, making (keeping!) unique in the process.
That's just nonsense. They sucked at only one thing: they couldn't extract money from users on an industrial scale. I'll take "suck" UX over modern social/ad-driven crap any time of the day.