Hacker News Reader

Comment by gruseom | Hacker News Reader

You speak only of the letter and not of the spirit of the thing. This has nothing in common with the mentality that created the internet in the first place, which was cosmic and adventurous and poetic.

It reminds me rather of cutting the perforations off of postage stamps. I doubt that J.C.R. Licklider would approve.

View on HN

Undoubtedly there are lots of high-minded poetic idealists behind the development of the internet. But the universe doesn't owe it to them to make the physical nature of the world adapt to their ideals. Maybe many people imagined that the internet would be this borderless space in the ether where packets flowed unimpeded from any source to any destination. Yet, borders are one of the most fundamental facets of earthly existence, and whoever controls them, whether they be nations or network providers, have tremendous power. And that is the true nature of reality.

"True nature of reality"? Highly debatable! Maybe in legal offices. :)

Everybody sees that concept through their own filter. I suppose to a cobbler the true nature of reality is surfaces that wear out over time.

Try walking all over your neighbor's lawn and get back to me about whether borders are a concept everyone sees through their own filter.

Depends on the neighbor.

In any case, filters that happen to be shared don't thereby become the "true nature of reality".

Borders are not a mental concept. They are empirically verifiable things (testable by walking across one and dodging the resulting bullets). The fact that you don't believe in them doesn't make them go away.

Bullets do not fire themselves, and the person who does so is acting on a mental concept.

internet abstract, borders reality. got it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com