Doom Patrols

Bryan Hancock (hancock@virginia.edu)
Fri, 5 Apr 1996 10:37:37 -0500

The author of this article reified information into a form unrecognizable to
most of us. By extolling the limitless quality of the Internet, and its
lack of a base, the author attempts to show that "information" can be
without a base and constantly be changing. From this perspective,
information is free and boundless. This appears to be his post-modern dream.

However, the author neglects the human quality of information. Although
hard disks are rewritable and RAM disappears, certain images and pieces of
information are indellible on the human conscience. For example, information
on the KKK is not the sort which should be forgotten or for whose experience
one should consider baseless.

Furthermore, although the information is boundless, and can provide a
variety of perspectives, each individual author on the Internet is writing
from a particular base. So "information" as an aggregate may be free, but
each piece of information is bound to its originator's perspective.
Finally, each person looking for information on the Web is, for the most
part, looking at areas which have already been screened (via seach engines,
other author's links, or his own interest). This serves to restrict the
practical expanse of information.