On the note that is somewhat related to my last blog entry, I would like to narrate an incident of this day. I like thinking up puns and quips, so today I came up with "carat and schtick", which I thought was a clever pun on "carrot and stick". Amazingly enough, Google revealed that at least one other person had already thought of this pun and even used it in a statement about the diamond industry.
Seem as it may a quaint sentiment, this is one of the things I find most fascinating about the web. This is not the first time I have found one of my ideas repeated elsewhere. Nor will it be the last. 15 years ago, the chances of me finding this would have been practically zero. The silent connection I made with the author would have been lost in time and space.
With publishing becoming easier, the web is fast becoming a grand archive of human ideas. Everything we say here is recorded for all posterity - if not on the host, then on one of the archiving engines trawling and capturing the data on web at any given time. Of course, that can pose dangers of its own; for example, your prospective boss finding a now-scandalous rant you posted on an obscure comments board in a fit of anger during your days as a fiery juvenile ideologue.
But we're here and there's no turning back. They speak of network effect on the web, but the web IS the network effect. From the obscurity of a DARPA project, it has taken on a life of its own. It's called a disruptive technology, but disruptive is too weak a word for it. For those with the irresistable yearning to dispense and consume information, this is the instant market connecting information supply and demand. And it's only the beginning. We sure do live in interesting times.
