Change Is a Constant: Tech Biters Have Underslung Jaws and Hang On a While
March 18, 2021
I read “Tim Berners-Lee Says Fad of Internet Giants Will Pass.” The “inventor” of the World Wide Web is a very smart person. I am, however, not sure he can pick winners of the Kentucky Derby or know which Beeple art work to acquire as a string of code.
He states, according to the write up in Tech Central:
“I’m optimistic, because we’ve seen some dominant fads on the Internet before … and then things change,” he said in an interview, adding that people were pushing back against the use and abuse of personal data. “(There’s) great awareness that things need to change.”
The friction for change is that online functions coalesce and form digital black holes. These holes suck in users and cash. They emit services which alter one’s perception of reality. Yep, that’s right. Perception near a digital black holes follows some interesting “laws”.
Consequently, change is going to operate on a different time scale. Consider the tech biters.
F Facebook has been chugging along on an interesting founder insight: Get names and data. Get dates. Yes!
A Amazon powered forward by getting others to pay for the company’s infrastructure, thus making it possible for the Bezos bulldozer to rework business that way Walmart crushed Main Street stores. Yes!
A Apple won favor by chugging along with design oriented products and building a cult following with a walled garden, a high ticket price, and the power of upscale pretentions. Yes!
N Netflix won the hearts and minds of thumbtypers by making video grazing normcore with an escalating monthly fee. Yes!
G Google was sparked by Messrs. Brin and Page insight that search could be monetized via the Yahoo Overture GoTo “pay to play” model. Yes!
The problem is that a failure of government oversight and regulation has allowed the black holes of digital services to dominate the business universe.
Change will come, but how often does a black hole wink out or morph into a benign dead mass?
Not often.
The tech monopoly fad may have a long half life just like Pu-239. Centuries, not picoseconds.
Stephen E Arnold, March 18, 2021
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