One day in CoHo, Kelly and Medium Rachel were talking about M. T. Anderson’s Feed, a young adults’ book they had to read for one of their classes.
The premise, of people with brain implants that connected them to the Internet, reminded me of Arthur C. Clarke’s The Light of Other Days, which I really enjoyed. I asked to borrow Medium Rachel’s book, and just finished it today.
In Clarke’s book, the networked minds were used for the good of society, eventually creating a utopia where all societal ills had been cured. In Anderson’s book, the “feed” was wasted on crass commercialism, with corporations controlling people’s access to information and basically their very thoughts and lives. It’s interesting to see both sides of how people view the Internet as it is today, and how they think it will change our lives in the future.