The ongoing argument about whether the Internet is a boon or a bust to civilization usually centers on the Web’s abundance. With so much data and so many voices, we each have knowledge formerly hard-won by decades of specialization. With some new fact or temptation perpetually beckoning, we may be the superficial avatars of an A.D.D. culture.
David Weinberger, one of the earliest and most perceptive analysts of the Internet, thinks we are looking at the wrong thing. It is not the content itself, but the structure of the Internet, that is the important thing. At least, as far as the destruction of a millennia-long human project is concerned.
Touchingly ignorant of the way the argument undermines its own assertions.
… as does the famous quote by Jean-François Lyotard that “the postmodern condition†consists of an “incredulity in metanarrativesâ€, where everything is viewed as being “dispersed in clouds of narrative elementsâ€. The claim is itself metanarrational – has to be! And so is illogical!