Experts agree: a WDTWTF title left unattended overnight represents an irresistible target for drive-by editors.

tar

OK, maybe not us, but the internet. And maybe not so much 'doomed' as 'failed'. Also, by 'experts', I mean some guy arstechnica interviewed. Shut up. I'm getting a job as headline writer in the morning.

##Cybergeddon: Why the Internet could be the next “failed state”

In the New York City of the late 1970s, things looked bad. The city government was bankrupt, urban blight was rampant, and crime was high. But people still went to the city every day because that was where everything was happening. And despite the foreboding feelings hanging over New York at the time, the vast majority of those people had at most minor brushes with crime.

Today, we all dabble in some place that looks a lot like 1970s New York City—the Internet. (For those needing a more recent simile, think the Baltimore of The Wire). Low-level crime remains rampant, while increasingly sophisticated crime syndicates go after big scores. There is a cacophony of hateful speech, vice of every kind (see Rule 34), and policemen of various sorts trying to keep a lid on all of it—or at least, trying to keep the chaos away from most law-abiding citizens. But people still use the Internet every day, though the ones who consider themselves "street smart" do so with varying levels of defenses installed. Things sort of work.

Filed under: you weary giants of flesh and steel

RaceProUK

So, the Internet, which has shrunk the world and boosted the global economy, is a 'failure' according to that 'expert'?

dookdook

So...

The internet has superficial, metaphorical similarities to 1970's New York
1990's Mogadishu and 1970's New York are interchangable by virtue of them both being a specific geographic location and decade
Therefore the Internet will collapse like Mogadishu.

the Internet would still exist, but it would be a much less reliable, much more dangerous place to be—especially for businesses and government agencies

I'm actually personally OK with this. If anything is destined to screw up the internet, it's over-commercialization and corporatization. I myself could get by just fine without online banking or if I needed to make a phone call to order something from Amazon so an automated system can take my credit card info and put it into Amazon's physically isolated internal network (or however it might work, I don't effing know. ).

Someone would finally need to sort out that whole "waiting on hold for a half hour just to yell at someone who doesn't understand english" issue, though.

RaceProUK

Low-level crime remains rampant, while increasingly sophisticated crime syndicates go after big scores. There is a cacophony of hateful speech, vice of every kind, and policemen of various sorts trying to keep a lid on all of it—or at least, trying to keep the chaos away from most law-abiding citizens.

Doesn't that describe more or less every city?

Onyx

@tar said:

Shut up. I'm getting a job as headline writer in the morning.

Clickbait rating: 8/10. Needs more "X weird things ...".

Luhmann

@dookdook said:

Amazon's physically isolated internal network

that thing doesn't exist, companies like Amazon have no completely separate internal network. they are just combining physical networks with each other over public/shared infrastructure. Unless your company is located in one physical building and has no outside links or dependencies you don't have an 'internal' network anymore.

boomzilla

@dookdook said:

If anything is destined to screw up the internet, it's over-commercialization and corporatization. I myself could get by just fine without online banking or if I needed to make a phone call to order something from Amazon so an automated system can take my credit card info and put it into Amazon's physically isolated internal network (or however it might work, I don't effing know. ).

That sounds terrible to me. But what do you mean by over-commercialization and corporatization? I would argue that we've gotten away from corporatization, which to me says something like the walled gardens of old AOL or Compuserve.

The closest to that IMO is all the stuff google does. But that's more about giving you tools and stuff, and doesn't seem to keep you within their walls (though maybe they'd like to).

dookdook

@boomzilla said:

The closest to that IMO is all the stuff google does. But that's more about giving you tools and stuff, and doesn't seem to keep you within their walls (though maybe they'd like to).

I rage against the 'walled garden' thing as much as anyone, but I'm the first to admit I'd be lost without google. Without google (or an equivalent search engine owned by another giant corporation with the money to do the same things google does) the internet would just be a small handful of sites whose url's I happened to learn somewhere.

People want to buy things, it's amazon.
People want to watch things, it's netflix.
People want to watch other things, it's pornhub.
People want information, it's wikipedia.
People want to talk about shit, it's reddit.
etc.

"The Internet" is becoming a small handful of sites, with everything else just kind of existing unnoticed and fading into irrelevance. Defending The Internet is starting to feel like defending Walmart.

I dunno, I'm just rambling. :p

Eldelshell

I think this is a bigger indicator that you're (if you're living in the USA) doomed:

And then, today, the National Science Foundation (NSF) delivered news of a pretty shocking poll result: around one in four ~~Americans~~ gringos¹ (yes, that's 25 percent) are unaware that the Earth orbits the sun. Let’s repeat that: One in four ~~Americans~~ gringos — that represents one quarter of the population — when asked probably the most basic question in science (except, perhaps, “Is the Earth flat?” Hint: No.), got the answer incorrect.

http://news.discovery.com/space/astronomy/1-in-4-americans-dont-know-earth-orbits-the-sun-yes-really-140214.htm

[1] For a better term, than 'Muricans

boomzilla

@dookdook said:

"The Internet" is becoming a small handful of sites

I disagree with your characterizations. In any case, you're whining about companies providing useful services. I buy stuff from a lot of different places online. Amazon (and others, e.g., ebay, etsy) isn't just a single seller. Amazon allows you to watch stuff you can't on Netflix. Then there's Hulu, and a lot of networks have their own stuff on their pages.

There are probably more porn sites than any other type of site. It seems super disingenuous to complain about anyone having a monopoly there.

I've never posted a single thing on Reddit, but I regularly post here (duh), on several other forums, plus facebook.

@dookdook said:

I dunno, I'm just rambling.

Now we're in agreement.

boomzilla

@Eldelshell said:

this is a bigger indicator that you're (if you're living in the USA) doomed:

The official flamewar thread is

aliceif

Did we ever have a flamewar about epicycles on here?

Eldelshell

It's not flamewar, it's just that all doom or post-apocalyptic media is focused on the USA, so while they're fighting zombies we're drinking red wine and fine olives while driving a Vespa around some piazza

accalia

@Onyx said:

Clickbait rating: 8/10. Needs more "X weird things ...".

hmm... maybe. is this title better?

boomzilla

@accalia said:

hmm... maybe. is this title better?

A little, but you left out the weird thing.

RaceProUK

I had a go

Not really sure what was going through my mind at the time though…

Onyx

I approve of the current one. for the culprit.

RaceProUK

@Onyx said:

for the culprit.

I like cookies…

blakeyrat

Those polls never take into account that most Americans are complete wise-asses.

Eldelshell

I don't think most of Peruvians are wise-asses and I haven't met enough Colombians, Brazilians, Mexicans, etc. To know if most of them are wise-asses.