Thanks for sharing this article.
Extract:
The most contested subjects in human history have arguably not been land or fortunes, but symbols, ideas, beliefs, and possibilities. As much blood has been spilled over products of the mind as of the body. The growing dominance of the Internet metaverse over “the real world” is just the next step in the story of man the myth-making animal.
You do not have to surrender your commitment to facts to participate in an alternate reality. You just have to engage with one, in any way. If you are a user of digital systems, if you allow them to provide you recommendations, if you train them on your preferences, if you respond in any way to the likes, downvotes, re-shares, and comment features they provide, or even if you are only a casual user of these systems but have friends and family and people you follow who are more deeply immersed in them, you are being formatted by them.
You will be assimilated.
And this closing quote in turn makes me wonder what the author thinks of a site like SN, where we certainly respond to the likes/downvotes (zaps/downzaps) and comment. I think we all agree that this is a better environment than FB/Twitter/Etc, but how much of an alternate reality are we engaging in?
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