The Internet is for Inefficiency

It has often struck my mind that we value the wrong things in inventions. We value the ability to "do more," to "work smarter and faster than ever before," to "think globally." And certainly all those things can be very good (or very evil, just ask Hitler), but I think some of the most marvelous inventions are the ones that seem a waste of time, that don't come pre-packaged with guarantees nad promises, but rather work sideways and unpredictably. Things like the volunteer-run Wikipedia, or the Old Time Radio Reaserchers, or the user-submitted MySpace, or even the blogosphere. Because the unique power of the internet is not its ability to bring us together faster and better than ever before; it's the ability to bring us together along with a spattering of semi-random static, out of which we can occasionally discern something wholly new to us, something that makes our lives better, richer and fuller if only in a very small way.

I write this thinking of a recent post on web-tribes, in which the author describes a frustration we all have had: the endless search of incomplete and unauthoratative information on the internet in which he utterly fails to find what he was searching for. And the solution, or part of the solution, is to have a specific human network of known and respected sources that helps to filter information. Not that I can disagree directly, but it does bring up a concern I tend to have with many internet utopias.

My reservation is that any filter cuts both ways. Because machines lack the breath of curiosity of humans, and searches based on popularity can end up obscuring immediate connections. It's not that I disagree with the ideas of remote groups of internet sources--I'd rather deal with people who I understand (if only a bit) on a human level for a deeper judgment on what their opinions mean--it's just that I'm a bit distrustful of effeciency, because I know that in many ways one of the most productive forces of the internet is its chaos and unpredictability.

One example: I was once googling Germanic legends, which with my tastes should’ve been something I’d already know some authority on the subject. But because of the inaccessibility of known sites, I was just skimming the surface with Google, and found a hillarious one-minute summary of Vagner’s Rings Cycle that instantly caught my attention by purposefully confusing Nothung with Narsil. I bookmarked the site for later, then went on with my work–but I later came back and the blogger who wrote that page has since become my #1 resource for provocative commentary and interesting news on Dr. Who or the Inklings.

So, for what it's worth, I'll throw my nickel into the debate on The Evolution of the Internet: let's work to make the internet smarter and faster, but let's not forget that the internet has hidden, as well as obvious, virtues. And let's remember there is a value in an internet that is expansive as well as effecient, broadening in perspective as well as valuable in focus. Because the true power of the internet will always reside in the unexpected connections, the ones we couldn't have searched for because we didn't know they were there.