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I came syncrhonistically upon Mr. Brin's article just after finishing his book "Earth," a futuristic vision that holds up reasonably well after nearly 20 years. His best idea in both pieces is that we will succeed to the extent we emulate Walt Whitman's notion that each of us contains multitudes.
The Internet and other high tech may indeed help us move in that direction. And I suspect Brin's right in that the only way to rationalize the inherent chaos of the current Internet is by letting it evolve naturally along market lines.
However, we must not forget Mr. Gresham's law, namely that in financial markets (as we have just seen, in spades) bad money drives out good. In the Internet market of ideas, it seems to me all too likely that bad ideas will drive out the good ones. Without mediation of some kind, that is. This comment is one additional, small act of such mediation.
