tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-321550112011-04-21T20:34:58.332-07:00An Outlet for Kneejerk Intellectual Quasi-Elitism. <br /> With Occasional Reference to Real Life. <br /> Anti-Intellectuals BewareSmokerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00182804613881162269noreply@blogger.comBlogger11100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32155011.post-1154799060006689502006-08-05T10:16:00.000-07:002006-08-05T10:56:59.910-07:00<span style="font-size:85%;">I was browsing YouTube the other day, and tripped across </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmHm0rGns4I"><span style="font-size:85%;">this video</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">. It's from the <em>Colbert Report</em> (a show I enjoy, although not nearly as much as <em>The Daily Show</em>) , and is about Wikipedia (or "Wikiality" as Colbert calls it).</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">You know what this clip reminded me of? <em>1984</em>. Now, I'm not saying that Wikipedia (which I generally admire, but don't swear by) is the new Ministry of Truth - an arm of a totalitarian socialism hellbent on stamping its own version of the truth into the minds of googlers everywhere. But, Colbert's whole spiel about "a reality we can all agree upon" really did conjure up Orwell in all of his glory for me. Especially his "adjustment" of the truth of things he had said on his show - just because he wanted to. Of course, Colbert devolves into silliness over an imaginary jump in elephant populations, but the same kind of idea is there. How will the fluidity of the internet (where I can just delete a first post as if it never existed) really effect how knowledge is created and dispensed? When everything can be tampered with - retrospectively edited, deleted, or reformatted - what will the real "original" version be? Or is there even such a thing as a finished product in a hypertext world?</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/32155011-115479906000668950?l=antimasses.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Smokerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00182804613881162269noreply@blogger.com1