I thought Web 3.0 was the end of everything and to be fair, I was kind of right. It was the beginning of the end. The algorithm is still the Big Bad, but it is just now using more awful tools to continue its destruction. It's gotten better at it. It's streamlined the process. The algorithm is now being generated by more algorithms. We're already past the point of diminishing returns. The internet is dead. Long live the algorithm! Most people don't even know they have a God. It's a sneaky God that runs their everyday lives from the shadows. It was never "AI" we needed to fear. It was always the algorithm.
I had started writing a memoir about the early web and what it was like going from a weirdo kid in the '80s with a PC to immersed in the hacker culture and taking part in the creation of the web in the '90s to middle aged during the apocalypse. It's been quite a ride. But I'm so tired now. Not just because I'm 50 and had a stroke. I'm tired in my bones in metaphorical ways. The state of reality is exhausting. I lose anything resembling hope on a daily basis. I feel isolated and defeated. The algorithm won. And I know it did. And by now, I should have known it would. Power always prevails. Powe structures are structures for a reason. They aren't power motes of dust or power clouds. They endure. They're built in rock and steel. So, why do we fight?
We fight because the alternative is unthinkable. We don't know if we have free will, but we live as though we do because we have no choice. We fight existing power structures because we have to. Because the alternative is to lay down and die. Because we cannot choose to lay down and die. Because we have an inherent instinct to fight. Because we are human. Because not even the algorithm can take that away from us.
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