Love the Beatles analogy John, and reflections on the grey goo internet of sewage and misery. Just makes me want to find a hammer and destroy the tech in the house!
Thank-you for your excellent book on my favourite if all- William Blake! It was written in a way that introduced Blake to the unfamiliar, but also held great interest and insights for those of us who are not scholars but are familiar with and very interested in Blake💜
Great article - Just enjoyed a week long festival in Hull for kids and very little internet so could actually enjoy time again. Time just being and taking part.
Ffab analogy with the Beatles, and wondering where this leaves us with regards to the awfulness of Oasis (which the BBC are kindly reminding us of tonight) Possibly as a precursor of OnlyFans?
Perhaps the KLF could drive the social media parts of the internet to a remote cliff, set it on fire, and push it over the edge.
Honest, I find it hard to see how some of the most valuable companies on the planet are going to walk away or make their products any less devious, addictive, and poisonous. Oil companies certainly haven’t. Substack, itself, generally admirable as it is, uses many of the same techniques as the most reprehensible giants of the internet and has steadily moved in the direction of being just another platform that delivers eyeballs.
It is, of course, sacrilegious to say, but perhaps we need a Mark David Chapman. Please forgive me.
Although it has to be admitted that after the Beatles break up, we get Bowie! (And then what’s left of the online world will just drag its ass out like the Stones.)
it’s not impossible to curate the shit out of your internet use. i recently discovered that people actually turn notifications on. anywhere. it’s beyond my ken.
once you’ve inoculated yourself against the bullshit you can function quite peacefully on the webz.
As someone who was on Usenet music forums in ‘89, I agree that its hard not to see the Internet as dying.
There are few independent forums or bulletin boards that have, say, the quality that Moorcock’s Multiverse did a few years ago in drawing people together, and sub-reddits and substacks are not the same thing.
I’m also finding that the more fervently Silicon Valley tries to foist augmented realities and metaverses upon us - and how dull they are, compared to what I imagined reading Gibson 40 years ago - the less interested I am. Probably as they are a reflection of the dull people creating them, rather than Stewart Brand’s children.
Love the Beatles analogy John, and reflections on the grey goo internet of sewage and misery. Just makes me want to find a hammer and destroy the tech in the house!
Thank-you for your excellent book on my favourite if all- William Blake! It was written in a way that introduced Blake to the unfamiliar, but also held great interest and insights for those of us who are not scholars but are familiar with and very interested in Blake💜
Great article - Just enjoyed a week long festival in Hull for kids and very little internet so could actually enjoy time again. Time just being and taking part.
Ffab analogy with the Beatles, and wondering where this leaves us with regards to the awfulness of Oasis (which the BBC are kindly reminding us of tonight) Possibly as a precursor of OnlyFans?
Perhaps the KLF could drive the social media parts of the internet to a remote cliff, set it on fire, and push it over the edge.
Honest, I find it hard to see how some of the most valuable companies on the planet are going to walk away or make their products any less devious, addictive, and poisonous. Oil companies certainly haven’t. Substack, itself, generally admirable as it is, uses many of the same techniques as the most reprehensible giants of the internet and has steadily moved in the direction of being just another platform that delivers eyeballs.
It is, of course, sacrilegious to say, but perhaps we need a Mark David Chapman. Please forgive me.
Happy Solstice John!
Although it has to be admitted that after the Beatles break up, we get Bowie! (And then what’s left of the online world will just drag its ass out like the Stones.)
It feels like the end of Mad Max The Road Warrior to me, when the tanker falls over and it’s just full of sand, and everyone gets it, and drives away.
What a great read. My heads fizzing with Beatle/internet puns and they’re all shite. ‘Al things must pass’ was the worst.
The last days of the internet? I called it
https://youtu.be/N9uru4LJkps?si=Zmv8ZiZRtW9DQE1V
it’s not impossible to curate the shit out of your internet use. i recently discovered that people actually turn notifications on. anywhere. it’s beyond my ken.
once you’ve inoculated yourself against the bullshit you can function quite peacefully on the webz.
just don’t ever read the comments. ever.
ever.
ever.
i don’t even read responses to my own posts.
Beatles forever! In my relatively unenlightened opinion, the Beatles are the best thing Britain has ever given the world.
Blackbird is as haunting in Mi'kmaq as it is in English.
https://youtu.be/99-LoEkAA3w?list=RD99-LoEkAA3w
As someone who was on Usenet music forums in ‘89, I agree that its hard not to see the Internet as dying.
There are few independent forums or bulletin boards that have, say, the quality that Moorcock’s Multiverse did a few years ago in drawing people together, and sub-reddits and substacks are not the same thing.
I’m also finding that the more fervently Silicon Valley tries to foist augmented realities and metaverses upon us - and how dull they are, compared to what I imagined reading Gibson 40 years ago - the less interested I am. Probably as they are a reflection of the dull people creating them, rather than Stewart Brand’s children.
When the apocalypse comes armageddon outta here!
Have a cosmic solstice 🌞😎✌️☮️