it's still a pretty good show, maybe the best by some measures. we have fascinating scientific discoveries and novel technological progress made every day.
but that show has so much more competition nowadays, with the scope of information exploding from local communities to the whole world (and beyond), because of technology, that exploits our natural social tendencies to peer at each other to see where we stand. now we're trying to hopelessly keep track of so many more people than we can keep in our heads, which creates the winner-take-all mechanics we see around us everywhere and that traps our collective attentions. whether we like it or not, we're building a global social hierarchy to replace millions of local ones.
how this is good or bad in the long run is a fascinating show in itself (even if each atomic unit of attention-seeking is trite).
but that show has so much more competition nowadays, with the scope of information exploding from local communities to the whole world (and beyond), because of technology, that exploits our natural social tendencies to peer at each other to see where we stand. now we're trying to hopelessly keep track of so many more people than we can keep in our heads, which creates the winner-take-all mechanics we see around us everywhere and that traps our collective attentions. whether we like it or not, we're building a global social hierarchy to replace millions of local ones.
how this is good or bad in the long run is a fascinating show in itself (even if each atomic unit of attention-seeking is trite).