June 12, 2006
Hazards of Online Collectivism?

Jaron Lanier, with responses from many others.

Edge; DIGITAL MAOISM: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism By Jaron Lanier

Excerpt: ...nothing less than a resurgence of the idea that the collective is all-wise, that it is desirable to have influence concentrated in a bottleneck that can channel the collective with the most verity and force. This is different from representative democracy, or meritocracy. This idea has had dreadful consequences when thrust upon us from the extreme Right or the extreme Left in various historical periods. The fact that it's now being re-introduced today by prominent technologists and futurists, people who in many cases I know and like, doesn't make it any less dangerous.

Posted by Dave at June 12, 2006 10:52 PM