Online Collectivism

The idea of collectivism online points to wiki type web pages that depend on the thinking of the whole instead of the individual.

In these types of web pages original thought is watered down into a pool of many users who might share different opinions until one idea about a particular fact is formed. This type of thought can be extremely beneficial when a head of an organization must make a decision that is paramount to the good of many. In this way collectivism is very democratic.

On the other hand online collectivism, Lanier argues, will lead to the extinction of personality and original thought because of the acceptance of artificial intelligence. The collective is most often manipulated such that there is the sort of "hive mind" frenzy in which individuals always side with the crowd (the hive) despite it being right or wrong.

Lanier also criticizes website like Digg or Popurls because the collective audience is the source of the product on these sites so it cannot be trusted as "real news."

He writes in his article Digital Maoism  here: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/lanier06/lanier06_index.html


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