Before the internet: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:22, 21 May 2022

In which the curmudgeonly old sod puts the world to rights.

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Before the internet things were

Analogue — information was buried in substrate and could only audio-to-digital converter was the human brain. Thus meetings and physical presence were a really important method of exchange - hence the importance of centralised locations for for merchants to gather.
Physically constrained — there was a physical cost to generating copying, adjusting, moving information, and any action lead to loss of fidelity.
Finite — the commons was a tragedy. There were infinite demand for finite resources, and generating information burned resources.
Disconnected - except where we were physically present, we were disconnected from each other and and reliant on expensive analogue communication. Any communication was effectively metered.
Intermediated — physical networks were expensive capital projects and therefore centralised and users depended on intermediaries with access to or ownership of the network. Intellectual property was similarly concentrated with intermediaries.

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 *'''Analogue''' — information was buried in substrate and could only audio-to-digital converter was the human brain. Thus meetings and physical presence were a really important method of exchange - hence the importance of centralised locations for for merchants to gather.
 *'''Physically constrained''' — there was a physical cost to generating  copying, adjusting, moving information, and any action lead to loss of fidelity.
-*Finite — the [[Tragedy of the commons|commons was a tragedy]]. There were infinite demand for finite resources, and generating information burned resources.
+*'''Finite''' — the [[Tragedy of the commons|commons was a tragedy]]. There were infinite demand for finite resources, and generating information burned resources.
 *'''Disconnected''' - except where we were physically present, we were disconnected from each other and and reliant on expensive analogue communication. Any communication was effectively metered.
 *'''[[Disintermediation|Intermediated]]''' — physical networks were expensive capital projects and therefore centralised and users depended on intermediaries with access to or ownership of the network. Intellectual property was similarly concentrated with intermediaries.