WWW: World Wide What Now?

Before going through this piece, I'd never really considered exactly how or why the web functions the way that it does. Obviously it had a history and process of development behind it as all things do, but I had never considered what that might entail. There was an image in my head that someone had just invented the web because it seemed like a cool idea, but it makes much more sense that it would take a connected string of minds to create the "web".

The technical details of the reading gave me some insights that I never would have thought of otherwise. "Client" and "server" are words that I've heard thrown around before when talking about networks and the web, but I'd never known exactly what they were referring to or why they mattered. As it turns out, they're a pretty big deal and sort of form the basic structure of the entire web. Who'd have thought? The client-server relationship reminds me of a post office in a way. The office holds all of the mail, while individuals send and retrieve information through them.

One thing that really resonated with me was the idea that the "web" concept started way before computers. And televisions. And radios. And...well a lot of other things. It's interesting that our constant need to organize and group information was really the driving force behind the web's creation. We had so much information accumulated after WWI that we felt this compelling urge to bundle it all up in neat little packages and tie it all together somehow. We also wanted to make it more usable and available. This made me think of how difficult it can actually be to find you truly want on the web today. Have we done too much linking?

Another interesting point was Bush wanting to use computers to improve the human mind. It's fascinating because even with all of the advances of the modern day, the brain is still more powerful and dynamic than the strongest computer. However, the web is increasingly able to relate to the connections we make in our brains. Think about advertising on sites like Facebook. If you search something, a creepily accurate ad usually shows up moments later that relates somehow to what you've been looking up online. It begs the question: will our networks eventually be able to read us so well that they'll actually have the capacity to mirror the "links" we make inside of our own minds?