INFORMATION UTOPIA
(Posted 2007-10-11 16:46:53 by ArchPaladin)

There was an article on Slashdot [
http://slashdot.org/articles/07/10/11/1346215.shtml ] [slashdot.org] today
stating that the number of new user accounts created at Wikipedia has
declined over the past year, as well as the number of new articles created.
 The discussion focused around whether or not Wikipedia had reached its
peak.

A number of the comments iterated some things about Wikipedia editing that
readers here may have heard: that new editors tend to have their revisions
and edits quickly reverted by older members, that editors tend to stake out
articles as their own territory for editing, that flamewars can and often
do happen over people's viewpoints over what is really truth, and other
such vagaries of human nature carried into cyberspace.

While reading through the Slashdot comments, it came to mind that a lot of
the old-school science fiction stories believed that a day would come when
rational discussion and the growth of information sharing would be able to
overcome our cultural and societal shortcomings.  We would be able to put
war, poverty, bigotry, and other unpleasantries behind us.

I think Wikipedia is a fairly good testament to that vision never being
able to become reality.  Wikipedia shows us that even when the need to
compete over resources or culture is removed, people will still fight over
mindshare, opinions, and the ability to be seen as the holder of accurate
information.  So, while access to information can greatly help us solve our
problems, it's not going to cure our vices.

I personally believe this is because our vices have a spiritual basis, and
it will take more than cultural change to fix that.

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