Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 39, No. 208.
        Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
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        Date: 2025-11-11 16:17:07+00:00
        From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk>
        Subject: history

Those here are unlikely to be surprised by James Gleick's "How the Web
Was Lost", New York Review of Books, December 4, 2025, but the article
may prove handy to disabuse less well-informed friends and relations.

Gleick's article is limited, however, by its framing as if history began with 
Burners-Lee et al. He fails to mention Vannevar Bush, Ted Nelson and many 
others whose thoughts amd schemes anticipated the WWW. The real problem 
here isn't the omission of predecessors itself but the unqualified marking of
a starting point out of its historical context, as if that context does not matter.
It does, hugely. Adam and Eve had only a thunderous command to steer by, 
with no history, no experience. We have millennia of it. What's our excuse?

Isn't it time to begin thinking historically about the situation in which smart 
machines are being designed and woven into the fabric of our lives?

Comments?

Best,
WM
--
Willard McCarty,
Professor emeritus, King's College London;
Editor, Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts,
   Sciences and Humanities (Berghahn); Humanist
www.mccarty.org.uk


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