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07-02-2013, 08:30 AM | #1 |
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Washington Post Editorial: "If I could, I would repeal the Internet"
Robert J. Samuelson has a pretty great (read: hilarious) editorial over at the Washington Post (here) where he opines that: (i) the Internet is an insignificant development compared to other revolutionary technologies; and (ii) the Internet is so significant that a cyber attack that cripples it could bring about the technopocalypse.
It's a pretty great article that tries to marry fear mongering over "cyberwars", the latest and greatest boogieman, with a quaint rant from your elderly grandpa that doesn't understand this newfangled "cyberweb". For those that don't want to read the article, here's a summary: Last edited by Ninjalawyer; 07-02-2013 at 11:14 AM. |
07-02-2013, 08:50 AM | #2 |
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Ha. I read up to the point where he calls GPS a capability of the internet, then quit.
I agree with your summary. |
07-02-2013, 09:13 AM | #3 | |
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Heck, I don't even need "GPS" to have GPS convience, it can be done using wifi and celltower locators. Also, I also stopped reading after the GPS comment. |
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07-02-2013, 09:32 AM | #4 |
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07-02-2013, 10:05 AM | #5 | |
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Gotta run, some kids look like they're step on my lawn... |
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07-02-2013, 10:58 AM | #6 |
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I took everyone's advice and didn't read the article.
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07-02-2013, 11:01 AM | #7 |
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07-02-2013, 11:12 AM | #8 |
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07-02-2013, 11:18 AM | #9 |
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The internet hasn't been great for newspapers. But then, newspaper readership was in decline before the internet became as commonly used as a news source as it is today. But anyway I guess I'm not surprised that someone who works for a newspaper doesn't like the internet, just like I'm never surprised that someone who owns a bookstore doesn't like e-readers.
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07-02-2013, 11:19 AM | #10 |
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I just skipped to the summary.
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07-02-2013, 11:33 AM | #11 |
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Unfortunately, I went ahead and read it. One more page filler and another 5 minutes of my life that I won't get back.
Off course internet is not that a big deal just like a car is not for me. I don’t drive, so if all the cars stop tomorrow, I won’t feel the difference |
07-02-2013, 03:23 PM | #12 |
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07-02-2013, 04:56 PM | #13 | |
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The social impact of the internet is deep. Instant access to an incredible amount of information is a deep impact. So is the ability to communicate instantly around the planet. People would write to pen pals across the ocean. It took some work and a lot of time to find a pen pal, and once you did, communication was very slow. There are many young people using the internet who have never even heard of a pen pal. And why should they? They can talk to someone across the ocean as quickly and easily as they could someone across town. Before eBay, if you had a valuable item, it could be very difficult to connect with someone who wanted to buy it. Soda machines can be hooked to the internet so the vendor can know when to refill it. No more empty vending machines because the company didn't know it was empty. We can check the weather for any location in the world. No need to check the local news. Taking a trip? You can find out instantly what the weather will be like. |
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07-02-2013, 10:35 PM | #14 |
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The article is also missing out on key points.
Even without the Internet, a lot of this infrastructure would still use computers and telecommunications equipment to increase automation. The only difference is that it would have been done over the telephone networks. Those networks would have the same issues with security. (Why would they do it either way? Cost. You don't need as many people to do the work. You don't have to pay people to travel to facilities.) Convenience may sound trivial, but it allows us to do more. Research that once took hours, or even days, of being hunched over books can now be done in minutes. You no long have to spend half an hour traveling to a public library and back, or an hour traveling to a university library and back, simply to access resources. Library hours aren't an issue either, if you're doing personal research when your not at work. Access due to availability and cost is also a huge benefit. I've lived in communities where the only library was a poorly managed elementary school library. The nearest real library was several hundred kilometers away. In one community, reaching that library would involve an expensive flight. Books by mail would be an alternative, but that involves an expensive long distance phone call to access the catalog while being unable to explore the options yourself. (Librarians may be good, but they aren't mind readers!) In that sense the Internet is a boon to business and education. Is the Internet as important as electricity and antibiotics? Well, we can't have an Internet without electricity and electricity has other uses. I suppose that electricity wins out there. Antibiotics, well that sounds important cuz it saves lives! Or maybe not. I'm pretty sure that sanitation saved more lives than antibiotics. Sanitation is mostly about information and can be reduced to simple social/physical engineering in many cases. Properly used, the Internet may be of greater value than antibiotics when it comes down to saving lives because it provides access to the necessary information. |
07-03-2013, 12:12 AM | #15 | |
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Oldsters like me remember telephone connections
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As long as we don't "burn the hardcopy books" we will do fine. It would be harder without cell phones, tv, etc but no worse than without electricity, cars and other 20th/21st century improvements. |
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