But mostly I just hand you an open, unsolved problem: make it possible / easier for groups of strangers to coalesce into an effective task force over the Internet,
Solution: wait 5 years for internet connection speeds to increase by an order of magnitude and for everyone to have ultralight netbooks with good webcams on them, and let groups convene in a much-improved version crossover of second life and facebook in exactly the same way that groups of hunter-gatherers convened on the savannah.
It is an elegant solution, because rather than attempting to work around our barely-evolved-monkey brains, it merely changes the internet to be more like the EEA.
I’m trying to use a primitive version of this by disallowing comments on my blog and forcing people to comment on it on facebook, where they have a fixed identity and where their social circle overhears the conversation.
Good idea, but it’ll be a lot more than 5 years until telecommunications can come close to the richness of face-to-face contact. (Just one example.) Probably more important still is the difference between having to set up a conversation vs. having people constantly at hand, feeling like they’re at hand, and being constantly available yourself.
Probably more important still is the difference between having to set up a conversation vs. having people constantly at hand, feeling like they’re at hand, and being constantly available yourself.
When facebook chat meets skype meets WoW, this will cease to be a problem. 5, maybe 10 years. Think WiMax.
Lanier’s article is interesting. But the things people already do on WoW contradict most of the thrust of the argument that you are making. WoW avatars are primitive imitations of the human form… with NO facial features at all! Yet, people have got married on the basis of WoW interactions.
The difference, I suspect, is that in WoW people interact with each other in a virtual world, whereas in videoconferencing you just have a disembodied, pixellated head to look at.
I like your facebook idea. In my opinion anonymity is one of the big players in this mess, it creates a sense of normality that can be easily just a deception; even if people could hear the “plea for help” all it takes is the majority of posts making fun of it for reducing it’s effectiveness, yet this majority of posts could have been wrote by the same person using many nicknames taking advantage of his anonymity… Since, in this scenario, most people seem to agree, the casual surfer would feel, even if he doesn’t like the comments, that at some point making fun of someone crying for help is normal and socially accepted.
Solution: wait 5 years for internet connection speeds to increase by an order of magnitude and for everyone to have ultralight netbooks with good webcams on them, and let groups convene in a much-improved version crossover of second life and facebook in exactly the same way that groups of hunter-gatherers convened on the savannah.
It is an elegant solution, because rather than attempting to work around our barely-evolved-monkey brains, it merely changes the internet to be more like the EEA.
I’m trying to use a primitive version of this by disallowing comments on my blog and forcing people to comment on it on facebook, where they have a fixed identity and where their social circle overhears the conversation.
Good idea, but it’ll be a lot more than 5 years until telecommunications can come close to the richness of face-to-face contact. (Just one example.) Probably more important still is the difference between having to set up a conversation vs. having people constantly at hand, feeling like they’re at hand, and being constantly available yourself.
When facebook chat meets skype meets WoW, this will cease to be a problem. 5, maybe 10 years. Think WiMax.
Lanier’s article is interesting. But the things people already do on WoW contradict most of the thrust of the argument that you are making. WoW avatars are primitive imitations of the human form… with NO facial features at all! Yet, people have got married on the basis of WoW interactions.
The difference, I suspect, is that in WoW people interact with each other in a virtual world, whereas in videoconferencing you just have a disembodied, pixellated head to look at.
I like your facebook idea. In my opinion anonymity is one of the big players in this mess, it creates a sense of normality that can be easily just a deception; even if people could hear the “plea for help” all it takes is the majority of posts making fun of it for reducing it’s effectiveness, yet this majority of posts could have been wrote by the same person using many nicknames taking advantage of his anonymity… Since, in this scenario, most people seem to agree, the casual surfer would feel, even if he doesn’t like the comments, that at some point making fun of someone crying for help is normal and socially accepted.