18 july 2018
I've been watching a bit of Ted Nelson on youtube today, and I've been wondering a bit... did we get this whole modern technology thing wrong? Is there an alternative universe where the World Wide Web was actually NOT the thing that took off, and gopherspace, SSH, using text, actually communicating - those things stayed around and thrived? What would have happened if the interent had NOT gone commercial? What's the alternative universe where non-PC computers didn't die out? What kind of modern Amiga or Sun or SGI machine could we be using now to surf the multiplicities of not-web information? What if the Newton had stayed around, and the iPad never happened? Where's my color Newton with high-speed internet access and excellent handwriting recognition or dictation abilities?
When did data become a thing we consume, voraciously, instead of a thing we create or make sense of?
Can I have my alternative technological universe?