Try google.

I'm surprised I had to read this far down before I saw someone complain about animated gifs...

The web always was a sewer... The difference now is that it is a corporatized, guided, walled-in, groupthink sewer as opposed to the chaotic sewer it used to be.

You must acknowledge the fact that if you were around for Web 1.0 and can remember those days that you are, like me, one of the old fogeys of the web. I've been online since '93 and I don't have a FB account, yet I have friends and relatives that think I'm some kind of noob because they can't find me on FB! Too funny.

There is a definite "generation gap" between we who remember "the good old days" of the web and those who were incubated in the SOSHAL web 2.0 groupthink.

I never understood why there was such a backlash against Trillian.
I use it also.

The fascinating thing is how the public now thinks that FB is "The Web/Internet". They chat through it, post pics, etc; Everything is done via FB and for someone to go to a site outside of FB is almost alien to many in that "Gilded Cage".

Scary and fascinating at the same time.

I knew this was where we were headed, and it will only get worse.

What makes you think it will "clear out"?

I would recommend reading some of the things Marshall Brain has written about this. He has(IMHO) the best take on this of any of the "futurists" I've read, including Kurzweil and the rest.

http://www.marshallbrain.com/

Schmidt is correct in saying that his livlihood, and that of Google and all other multi-national corporations is dependent upon customers. Customers who are well paid and well educated.

Will robotics and computers continue to take jobs away by "increasing productivity"? Will there be an unemployed segment of the population that will grow every year, regardless of what politicians do? I think so.

As the permanent underclass of unemployed grows and impacts corporate profits, it will be interesting to see what will happen. Large scale discontent will be largely controlled by the police state/security apparatus that we live in now already. No one will be able to make a difference and the 1% with all the toys will be able to live in a world completely removed from the reality that the rest endures. It is almost like this now.

Unless something like a massive coronal mass ejection happens, we can count on Schmidts, Brains and Joys assessments, that The Future Doesn't Need Us.

This thread and your posts are great!
It's like listening to dialog from the 1978 version of "Invasion of The Body Snatchers":

Internet User Concerned with Privacy: [chats with FBI] I'll get the authorities involved.
FBI Chat Bot: How can I assist you?
Internet User Concerned with Privacy: I'd like to report four bodies in my backyard.
FBI Chat Bot: Wait right there Mr. Bennell.
Internet User Concerned with Privacy: How do you know my name?
Jack Bellicec: [Jack's eyes widen with fear] Disconnect the Hard Line, Matthew.
Internet User Concerned with Privacy: [replies to FBI Chat Bot] I didn't tell you my name.
Jack Bellicec: Disconnect!!!
Internet User Concerned with Privacy: [ends chat session] I didn't tell them my name!
Nancy Bellicec: That's because they're all part of it. They're all Social, all of them!

Your post has that not-so fresh scent of a shill for Industrial Big Data/Behavior Monitoring/Pre-Crime Complex.

The climate change we are facing, its effects on our food supply, energy, medicine, etc; will force us in the First World to become more self sufficient and more locally focused.

Unless some firehose of technological/financial miracles takes place to alleviate the problems caused by climate change, we will be forced to adapt. We will be forced to adapt our lifestyles in the coming decades. This doesn't mean living in caves or any other such denier nonsense. If anything this adaptation will be an opportunity for evolution and growth.

It simply means that since the 1% that Rule America are actively and aggressively feeding the flames of environmental destruction, it will be incumbent on the average citizen to build the mechanisms for self reliance on a local level. This is happening now and will only increase as the options for survival of our lifestyle become less palatable.

For details speak with anyone who lived through the Great Depression.

Waiting for the corporations, the government or the church to save you isn't an option.

I concur about the Ecco shoes, and you've got the best sig on /.

I had the BB flip phone. Yea it was actually pretty cool, but I couldn't resist getting a killer deal on a GS3. The GS3 is such a blast, rooted and Cyangogen.

There are loads of impaired drivers high on Cannibas driving around ALL THE TIME. It's been going on since the 1960's. This isn't some new tidal wave of high drivers who will flood the freeways.

You want to see impaired driving? Sit at a stop light, waiting to go and look out into the intersection and watch the people stopped to turn left. What are they doing? They are enraptured in their smart phone, attempting in vain to look up once in a while to see when they can go. I look to my left, the person driving the car is doing something on their phone. The light changes and all these people, it seems like its the majority anymore, are FUCKING AROUND ON THEIR PHONE!!!!!!!!!!

Don't bitch about high drivers when there is an epidemic of "high" drivers already on the road(yes I know it's illegal in CA and a few other states...)