12 DEC 2017 by ideonexus

 The Consensus of Cyberspace

In the real world the empty page might scare the writer. as the blank screen might intimidate the programmer, but now individuals found themselves in the position of having to "boot up" an entire universe of meaning, without any easy reference to the constellation of familiar objects that tend to reinforce the tentative definitions obf newly ereated artifacts. Say, for example, one wished to create a chair in cyberspace, circa 1985. The most that can be said is that this "chair" won't look ve...
  1  notes
 
03 JAN 2012 by ideonexus

 An Cosmic Virus

The Blight has been our top priority since its instantiation a year ago. This is not just because of the Blight’s obvious strength, the destruction and the deicides it has committed. We fear that all this is the lesser part of the Threat. There have been perversions almost as powerful in the recorded past. What truly.distinguishes this one is its stability. We see no evidence of internal evolution; in some ways it is less than a Power. It may never lose interest in controlling the High Beyo...
Folksonomies: evolution otherness
Folksonomies: evolution otherness
  1  notes

The danger in Vinge's book is the "Blight" an godlike intelligence that is all the more dangerous for the fact that it does not evolve, but is a rot that sets in and stays.

03 JAN 2012 by ideonexus

 "Net of a Million Lies"

And so it went. Tens of thousands of messages, hundreds of points of view. It was not called the Net of a Million Lies for nothing.
  1  notes

Vinge's galactic internet is a rumor mill, predicting the emotionally-charged falsehoods and tribalism that would appear on today's internet.