Wake Up

In an attempt to reduce my backlog of unread articles, I ended up reading an article from Codepunk^ this morning, on the internet culture of the early years of the Internet, and whether this was just nostalgia or something more.

The entire article is well worth a read if you haven't done so already, but especially the last paragraph stood out for me (slightly edited for brevity):

We're seeing a resurgence in many cyberpunk ideas today. And the nostalgia or the yearn for authenticity—whatever you want to call it—is emerging because those of us who grew up cyberpunk are the writers and managers and storytellers of today. We've reach our collective midlife crises and looked back on what the world has wrought, and we no longer find it desirable. We want to progress forward to envision and experience cyberspace as it should have been instead of a mega-corporation's interpretation of cyberspace—filled with trademarks and advertising.

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We look at the Internet today and wonder what went wrong. But at the same time, we're the ones most in a position to actually do something about it. First we need to wake up.

For some reason, this made an impact on me.

It is one thing to have a sense of nostalgia for something we feel that many of us have lost (an internet as an open and collaborative space for exploration, vs a siloed internet where we are being used by corporations) but in the end, we are also the ones uniquely capable to move things towards a better alternative.

That alternative might involve elements from the past. Perhaps, what was old becomes new again. It might also be something completely different and new.

Whatever it is, we need to *wake up*.

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