The Web Enslaves Us With Convenience

In The Matrix, Neo learns that humanity is enslaved by machines. The populace “lives” in a virtual world, unaware that their body heat is being used as an energy source. I see a sort of low-fi parallel of this in our relationship with Facebook. Every member operates in that “free” forum, largely unaware that they’re powering the thing by relinquishing their user data. This scenario is in stark contrast to what we once hoped the web to be. We imagined it as a means of liberating peo...

 We value throwing a ball through a hoop more than science

That we have come so far in the enterprise of understanding nature, far enough to pry open the nucleus of the atom, to sail through interplanetary space, to lose ourselves in the Internet, and perform medical surgery with laser beams, all of this is cause for great celebration, not fear, and it's time we quit hiding all this under the covers and let these people come out of the shadows into the light of day and take accurate stock of their accomplishments and their failures and make an attemp...