I'm a long time lurker of HN who just created an account to correct something you are wrong about.
> I waste time trying to correct people who will never in a million years be swayed by a random internet comment.
The ability of strangers to broadcast opinion at each other is one of the largest changes in communications history. Society is structured by how we communicate with each other. Without writing we wouldn't have had command economies, without a printing press, we wouldn't have democracy* and without money we wouldn't have a free-market. How we communicate with each other literally builds our society. In a thousand years they will look back at this time as one of the fundamental turning points in human history.
Perhaps your one comment doesn't make a difference. But when it is voted up and it is repeated by others, it does. It creates a social feedback mechanism for creating morals and ideas and ultimately laws. It changes who we are as a society.
Being able to correct some random strangers wrongness on the internet is one of the most important fundamental inventions in the whole of human history.
Having said that, I totally agree with the article posted. It is not a process that engenders inner peace.
> I waste time trying to correct people who will never in a million years be swayed by a random internet comment.
The ability of strangers to broadcast opinion at each other is one of the largest changes in communications history. Society is structured by how we communicate with each other. Without writing we wouldn't have had command economies, without a printing press, we wouldn't have democracy* and without money we wouldn't have a free-market. How we communicate with each other literally builds our society. In a thousand years they will look back at this time as one of the fundamental turning points in human history.
Perhaps your one comment doesn't make a difference. But when it is voted up and it is repeated by others, it does. It creates a social feedback mechanism for creating morals and ideas and ultimately laws. It changes who we are as a society.
Being able to correct some random strangers wrongness on the internet is one of the most important fundamental inventions in the whole of human history.
Having said that, I totally agree with the article posted. It is not a process that engenders inner peace.
* Ancient Athens used theater to the same effect.