Telling the hive mind to shut the fuck up

In the 1990s, Jaron Lanier was one of the digital pioneers hailing the wonderful possibilities that would be realized once the internet allowed musicians, artists, scientists and engineers around the world to instantly share their work.

Mr. Lanier, a musician and avant-garde computer scientist — he popularized the term “virtual reality” — wonders if the web’s structure and ideology are fostering nasty group dynamics and mediocre collaborations. His new book, “You Are Not a Gadget,” is a manifesto against hive thinking and digital Maoism, by which he means the glorification of open-source software, free information and collective work at the expense of individual creativity.

Hmmm, individual creativity at the expense of open free for all.

Not to be all Ayn Rand about it, but the individual sure has taken a lot of hits of late. The idea of the collective, the social as more important than the personal is a great way to control everyone if you’re a politician. But not so hot if you’re an artist.

The idea of one over everyone just means dropping the standards to the absolute lowest (rather than rising to the highest).

The wisdom of crowds? How about the folly of fools?