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Open original source ↗The digital divide has reversed.
Digital is cheap, ubiquitous, often fake.
Physical is the premium product now.
All this goes in cycles. Digital was rare, valuable, non-obvious, and difficult for a long time. Now we’ve won so hard that the physical complements are becoming more valuable. We have plenty of once-scarce jelly, and now it’s time to make peanut butter again.
But to answer the question directly: algorithms create value (try running the modern world without quicksort or pagerank). Think about billion-person networks, social media, cryptocurrency itself…in many ways we live in an Internet First world, particularly in the English-speaking world.
And digital progress will continue, as it should. But now it’s time to print out the Internet, to materialize all these cool things from the cloud upon the land, and also to rebuild genuine in-person communities in the process. Like new cities, built not around the car but the self-driving, electric car.
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@balajis What digital thing was ever sought after as a genuine prize?
danieljohnclark ↗