Hacker News Reader

Comment by scrrr | Hacker News Reader

The Internet will provided it stays free and open. Through freely available information eventually we will resolve our petty differences, overcome destructive behavior and start fixing big problems like illness and space flight. Perhaps.

View on HN

Ha. I get the feeling your comment is a little tongue in cheek. I have a pet theory that precisely the opposite will happen. That the internet will give rise to increased differences and destructive behaviour. Why? Because the internet allows people to be exposed to widely opposing views, to trolling by groups with opposing views, allows people to "meet" and argue, allows even the most extreme of viewpoints to build an audience, and allows disparate groups to rally together. E.g just look at Atheism vs Religion. I could see that coming to blows at some point.

So you say less/more difficult communication and perhaps even censorship is better in order to prevent conflict?

I don't know what the solution is, or if there is one, or even if I'm right. But as an example, look at the Pastor who was going to burn the Koran. 30 years ago before cable and internet news this guy would have never been heard of. But today, thanks to cable TV and the internet a huge amount of animosity has been generated, there's been demonstrations, reinforcement of cultural biases etc etc. Is this a good thing?

I don't share the view of the world that now somehow things are worse. This seems to be the view of a conservative person.

The opposite is true. The world is now the safest it's ever been. It's also the wealthiest and offers the most opportunities.

why are you inverting his argument to the most extreme opposite?

I'm not. I'm asking, if how I understand it is how he meant it.

"Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation." --Douglas Adams

You haven't been following the Zed Shaw rant threads here have you?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com