Ok, so the title is a little over the top. But I’ve been thinking about how the services which are collectively called “Web 2.0″ work, and what they do to people, and perhaps it’s not hyperbole after all.
This all began with a game I played with friends called the Poll Game. The idea is that one persons asks a question, and everyone tries to predict how many people will answer “yes” to the question. It’s a step above Scruples (shudder), but can be a way to kill 20 minutes. Anyway, the question in question (hah! made a funny!) was, “Do you think that we will have established a working colony – no families, just astronauts and scientists – on the surface of another planet or moon within 100 years?”
This seemed like a ridiculous question to me. After all, you should ask questions where the answers of the other players is not obvious. I immediately pulled the “10″ out of my hand, indicating that I thought all of us would say “yes.”
