Weaving a web of precedent

With such a baffling array of new 'tools' for the web, it's a wonder what they are all supposed to do. After all, what use is a tool without a job? In fact it seems that most of them create jobs rather than solve them. Take this blog for example. Before I started it, I spent my time on other things and yet the advent of a new technology has led to my writing banal and conceited thoughts into a space that no one reads. Or at least I don't know if anyone reads since there is no counter for visitors. Perhaps the counter will only start with visitors or there is no 'tool' for that very real job. We create with no other purpose but to create a perfect technology.

So the Internet is some strange Pygmalion adventure that will end with us all praying that Venus takes pity on us all and brings it all to life. Worryingly, Second Life has in fact almost achieved this already. We could even go so far as avoiding the Web’s series naming convention like it is a sequence of ever more boring films and plump for calling it Paphos. The worst part is that we are all so insouciant about what would truly be the momentwe cross the Rubicon and disturbingly immerse ourselves in our technological marvel. And who was born in Paphos?

All this leads to the news that it’s humans' innate sense of fairness that has separated us from chimpanzees. An extraordinary discovery that perhaps has huge ramifications for how we look at our modern societies with their increasing unfairness. Of course, it’s worth considering whether this is really a discovery or more of a wishful interpretation of animal behaviour to be a simpler version of ourselves. A Web 1.0 if you like.