undefined | Better HN

0 pointsgaryrob3mo ago0 comments

> I'm not aware of a single cynic who successfully predicted how things actually ended up turning out.

Let's change that here and now! :)

I was one of the optimists in the very early 2000s when I attended a talk by Columbia professor Eli Noam. In 2002, he wrote an article in the Financial Times called "Why the internet is bad for democracy" which essentially predicted the world is we know it.

I immediately saw that he was right, at least with regard to the fact that it COULD turn out as it has, in fact, turned out. He fundamentally changed my view, way back then. In 2005 a version was published in a more academic context: “Why the Internet is bad for democracy.” Communications of the ACM 48(10): 57–58 (2005).

Here's the FT version: https://www.citicolumbia.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Why-...

0 comments

mapontosevenths3mo ago

That was startlingly accurate! Thanks for sharing.

Any idea if he's published anything recently? A quick Google seems to show a textbook a few years back and then not much recently.

Anamon3mo ago

Short, densely packed and to the point. It does seem very prescient, although I may be underestimating how clearly these tendencies could already be seen 20 years ago. I, for one, was definitely still in the techno-optimist camp back then.

"Free access to information is indeed helpful, which is why the internet undermines totalitarianism. But it undermines pretty much everything else, too, including democracy."

Indeed.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse