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Mind to Mind?
In Chapter 12, Tim, expands on his two part dream for the Web.
(this page is a work in progress)
TBL (WTW p, 157) on his two part dream for the web:
I have a dream for the Web...and it has two parts.
In the first part, the Web becomes a much more powerful means for collaboration between people. I have always imagined the information space as something to which everyone has immediate and intuitive access, and not just to browse, but to create. The initial WorldWideWeb program opened with an almost blank page, ready for the jottings of the user. Robert Cailliau and I had a great time with it, not because we were looking at a lot of stuff, but because we were writing and sharing our ideas. Furthermore, the dream of people-to-people communication thorough shared knowledge must be possible for groups of all sizes, interacting electronically with as much ease as they do now in person.
In the second part of the dream, collaborations extend to computers. Machines become capable of analyzing all the data on the Web --the content,links, and transactions between people and computers. A "Semantic Web," which should make this possible has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy, and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines, leaving humans to proivide the inspiration and intuition.
See:
Enhanced communication through shared knowledge.
TBL on group forming and the powers of ten (audio by Christopher Lydon)
On new "social engines":
Perhaps the Web will enable more organic styles of management, in which groups within a company form in a local, rather ad hoc fashion. They could be made self-forming like a newsgroup, but with constraints that ensure that whoever jins is needed for the work of the company and is covered by sufficient budget. Beyond that, the company doesn't have much conventional structure. When someone has a task to perform, they associate with whomever they need to get it done. People make commitments and negotiate them between groups, without having to go to a manager.... The stage is set for an evolutionary growth of new social engines. The ability to create new forms of social process would be given to the world at large, and development would be rapid, just as the openness of Web technology allowed that to bloom.
See: Social software
Next.... See Semantic Web: A Sporting Gentleman's Guide to the Semantic Web by Ben Hammersley
Posted by Mark Hemphill on October 19, 2005 | Permalink
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Comments
If computers get more intelligent, and more human like, I don't know what to expect from this, will it be able to make decisions on its own. I'm afraid we might slowly lose our authority over them. Will we control computers in the future or will they control us? I, myself, don't like the feeling of losing control over important issues. Think about it?
Posted by: Nathalie | Oct 23, 2005 9:56:34 PM
TBL talks alot about the social aspect of the web, and the potential it carries with it. Ideas like social software, and social bookmarking are becoming so second nature to us, its hard to go back and think how we ever did anything without it. For example, now that I am familiar with the power of a wiki I find it hard to get others to understand why it can be so benefitial. A familiar response I get when I try to explain a wiki to someone who knows nothing about it is, "why couldn't someone just change it to all wrong information"....and this tells me right away that they are missing the driving idea of a wiki.
I think of this question the same way I think of how the web works, as it is in real life there are people that try to corrupt and make things worse, but we hope that there are still enough people trying to make this a better place to override those individuals. Doesn't the web run on this idea? TBL set out his vision for people to catch on and run with it, for people to make it a better service/product. Relating to the wiki question, sure there might be someone trying to screw things up, but there are millions of other eyes watching it ready to correct their actions.
This is where I see the webs power, that there are so many people working to make this idea better, that it can only just get more useful and credible. Some people can look at the web in such a negative way and say it is ruining society, and corrupting minds...but isn't that the exact thing people said about TV?/Rock 'n Roll?/any other new technology? as TBL implies, the web is only as good as the people who contribute to it.
Posted by: Chad M. | Oct 23, 2005 11:29:03 PM
