Ahh, the heady days of the early internet after the government sold it off. A future of unheralded peace and prosperity due to the democratization of knowledge and ease of commerce. Well then, looking at some of the results. Millions of people obsessively looking at fake news and pictures of each other doing stupid things while ignoring everything around them. Millions looking at the ubiquitous porn. Whole communities that believe the moon landings were faked, or they were abused as part of an alien conspiracy and they can now use telepathy and remote viewing, or that vaccinations kill people. The efficiency of commerce now includes virtual slave labor for millions in southern China, while over-worked Americans toil in warehouses at breakneck pace to ensure some slack-jawed yokel in Tuscaloosa can get a talking fish and some fake penis enlargement pills to be delivered by yet more overworked and underpaid shipping company workers while actual stores shutter. Oh, and the spreading of democracy, where, under the greatest private and public surveillance yet, we have elected an openly racist and vindictive failed casino builder and television host who now wishes to appoint a neo-confederate, authoritarian lunatic to the post of Attorney General. My tattooed, ear-ringed friend said this in 1989 as he watched my brother experiment with sending a stick figure image across a 2500 baud modem on a 12mhz desktop.."Yup...and when things get faster, they'll send smut over it." That statement understood human nature better than all the techno-utopians. The tools are only as good as the talking monkeys operating the things, and there are a lot of really dumbass talking monkeys.
