One small keystroke for Nelder, one great leap backwards for the marketplace of ideas.

I've always viewed those that keep solid, regularly updated blogs with an equal mixture of admiration and disdain. Admiration for people with enough confidence in their opinions and world-view to regularly put their thoughts to paper (well, internet), and take the praise and criticism that resuls. Disdain, because I often read their opinions and world-view while sobbing, my head buried in my hands and cursing the infinite beauty of human stupidity.

Still, I can't work out what I'm doing here. My previous claim to fame was sticking a mince and cheese pie between two peices of bread, and calling it a sandwich. For the most part I don't have opinions, I simply mash together stuff I read in the Economist, with stuff Geoff Robinson told me on Radio New Zealand National, with stuff I saw on the Daily Show and try and fool my friends I have formulated an erudite and insightful comment on the issue of the day.

I guess my reasons for starting a blog (or at least demanding to be a part of Paul Daniel's blog) are threefold. Firstly, it continues a stunning trend for me of getting involved in fads many years after they have passed their prime. (I was still trying to make ChatterRings chatter in 2002). In this case, I am getting involved in a fad just before the Large Hadron Collider blasts into the black holyness of oblivion. Secondly, I feel that rather than just criticising and plagarising the work of current talking heads, I should join the scrum, and offer my own thoughts about things I care about, or think I should care about. (Read: I actually just want to wring as many puns out of Sarah Palin's name as possible).

Thirdly, I am constantly amazed by how the internet, and in particular Web 2.0 is constantly forcing us to reimagine the way we think about communication and information. With the arrival of Youtube, debates about free speech and whether some things are suitable for the public eye have becoming virtually non-existent. Want to see Saddam Hussein hung? Fill your boots. Want to get in touch with your inner white supremacist? Treatfest. Want some top quality Nunsploitation pornography? Err...maybe thats a job for Paul. Not only has the internet taken the power of information control away from governments, but it has the power to remake politics and information as we know it. Sarah Palin was first floated as a Vice-Presidential pick by a blogger, blogging out of his mother's basement! (victory for Nerdocracy can be found here!) Ron Paul's bid for the Republic presidential nomination, based on a return to a libertarian 'MARKET YAY, GOVERNMENT BOO HISS' philosophy remains a 'revolution' largely based in cyberspace. (and just to show my total mastery with the link function, check out the revolution here.) But it shows the ability of the internet to bring together people united by a philosophy, and showcases the enormous potential of the internet to acheive a common goal.

Of course, the internet may lead a communication revolution, but it need not necessarily be a force for good. Of particular concern is the ability of people to get all news and information from web-sites that correspond to their particular world view, without ever coming into contact with the alternative set of arguments. This can merely serve to entrench and extremify people's current opinions, as if we are never exposed to the philosophy behind the alternative view , then we are unable to concieve of how it can have any basis in reality, and will be wholly unsympathetic to people who hold those views. One of the beauties of convential print media, is that it functions in some way like a village green, with rational discourse confined to only a few sources (and it physically hurts to type the word 'rational' when referring to the NZ Herald'), we are exposed to views we vehemently disagree with, but we are given the chance to respond to them, to try and convince others that they are wrong, and sometimes to have our own opinions. It is quite rational though, to presume that people will want to read, and watch information they agree with (apart from those of us that just find the mindless bigotry at fox news to be LOL), and it would be a tragedy to see the internet lead to a disassociation between both sides of the political spectrum.

So...I guess my third reason for wanting MY VERY OWN BLOG (in partnership with Paul Daniels) is that if everyone else is using the internet to show the lynching of dictators, nunsex, or simply aiming to destroy the concepts of political discourse and consensus....then I want MY slice of this tasty, destructive, all-powerful cyberpie.