August 25, 2002

An Info Immune System for the Planet

Christian Crumlish

I must be obsessed, since now I'm dreaming about weblogs and waking up with new thoughts freshly gelled from my subconscious.

This morning it was an image of weblogs as antibodies or red^H^H^Hwhite blood cells (can you tell I haven't studied biology all that carefully?), swarming to attack so-called information from every possible angle. Whether it's just a multiplicity of viewpoints or Ken Layne's "fact-check[ing] your ass" the idea is the same. The sum of the blogosphere's parts is a planetwise intelligence system that knows more than any individual possibly could.

The phrase that came to mind was "the truth will out." I went looking in my trusty Bartlett's to find the source and could only find "Truth will come to light" (Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, act II, sc. ii, l. 86). Most of the related expressions are specifically about murder but make the same point about truth: see also "Mordre wol out, certeyn, it wol nat faille." (Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner's Tale, l. 558) and "Murder will out." (Cervantes, Don Quixote, pt. I, bk. III, ch. 8).

Posted by xian at August 25, 2002 12:07 PM
Comments

An Immune System for the planet ? Why not. It would have at least the following basic components: a stable definition of self, prevention or detection and subsequent elimination of dangerous foreign activities (infections), memory of previous infections, a method of recognizing new infections, and a method of protecting the immune system itself from attack. Nothing more.

[While the comment is relevant, the URL supplied is clearly just an ad, so it has been deleted and that particular web address added to my blacklist. - ed.]

Posted by: Alex at November 17, 2003 11:33 PM
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