Justifying the Internet

The internet is not a place for communication.

We talk, shitpost, shop, and consume content, but the internet as originally intended (in my opinion) is a power redistribution platform.

Exhibit A: Contractor at CERN, Tim Berners-Lee proposes hypertext, a concept that allows for the linking of text documents so scientists can stop depending on traditional methods to update each other. Faster, freer information access = less reliance on gatekeepers, potential saboteurs and more power to the individual.

Exhibit B: Satoshi Nakamoto introduces a decentralized digital currency that allows for peer-to-peer (bankless) transactions. This innovation challenges financial institutions and empowers individuals to have control over their own money.

Exhibit C: Social networks have enabled individuals to share thoughts without the need for traditional media gatekeepers. This has led to a more diverse range of voices being heard, including that of degenerates, bad faith agents and attention needy people.

How I justify the internet will mostly surround around Exhibit C.

The internet is a second home for the isolated, marginalized, and misunderstood. Also mentally ill people. (see: schizoposting)

Take Chinju for example: She didn't talk a lot growing up. The adults around her were often dismissive of her thoughts and feelings, which made her retreat further into herself. The internet became a refuge where she could:

1. Express herself
2. Connect with others who shared her interests or thought the same way she did
3. Get social validation and the feeling of 'belonging'

Chinju had maybe 2-3 friends irl, they spoke and had fun but it was all very surface level or the things they did did not move Chinju that deeply. They understood Chinju had other friends on the internet and spent a lot of time on her phone but they did not mind it.

One day while chatting with her internet friends on Discord she wanted to make a custom Discord bot for their server. Chinju did not know how to code or what hosting or API meant, but she had something else entirely: unlimited time due to COVID lockdown and the access to whatever piece of information she could name. After a few YouTube videos, articles and looking up documentation (no LLMs at that time) she has a very simple bot working.

Seeing her friends have fun with her bot made her feel proud and made her want to add more fun, intricate features. She would learn Python through YouTube and a PDF, talk to other bot developers in the Python server, and dream up bot commands so fun her friends couldn't stop playing with it. Oh and she figured out Heroku provides a damn good free trial period (if you keep creating new accounts 🤫).

She would also meet another bot developer who coded in JavaScript and was very snobby about it. They had a rivalry on who could make the best features for their bot using their respective languages, this made Chinju learn about APIs, web scraping, HTML, XPATH, bit of JS and whatever she had to know about to make a more fun bot.

While all of this happened, one of her friend's friend would setup their own server and liked her custom bot so much they wanted one specifically coded for their server as well. Oh and they paid. Like cash. Like real money. $20 was around 4k rupees at the time (She painfully setup PayPal with her mother's account for this) and Chinju realized that she MIGHT be able to make more money.

What I haven't told you so far is that while Chinju had access to the internet and a phone (yes, she coded on her phone) she wasn't that well off. Her alcolohic and depressed father made no money, and the money he did make would take a long time to be put to use since he put a fight everytime her mom made a request. Her mom and dad fought like no one else other than them exists in that household. The fights sometimes end in bloodshed and sometimes Chinju disassociated so hard betweeen them she would forget the value of her own existence. Getting that money made her feel like she had a chance to get out of that household, a chance to be at a place with friendly people, similar to the ones she met on the internet. Chinju with her skill, made enough money to buy herself headphones, school supplies, a guitar, self-help books and more stuff. She bought her mom a saree and paid for her dad's internet once. Chinju would have barely any human interaction irl and she developed social anxiety (you can debate if its from the parents or the phone) but she never felt better. She had hope. She thought she deserved a chance to be happy, a thought her parents couldn't even think of.

Chinju would go on to be a completely normal person, she was 13-16 at that time and by the time she got to college you couldn't even really tell she was chronically online as a kid till you spoke to her a lot. She learned to navigate the complexities of both online and offline interactions, ultimately finding a balance that worked for her.

This is where the real power of Internet comes from. Chinju could have potentially stuck in a broken household forever without a means to escape, BUT, but, the decision of a CERN contractor to create the World Wide Web would lead to Chinju finding meaning in her life. She sold her skill and time for money to a PEER without using an intermediary (who would have in turn exploited her to make more money). She sold something to someone and got something in return. In the Internet, she held real power.

The most abundant job for teens in Kerala would be catering work which would give around 300-700 rupees for a day's work. Chinju coded up a bot and set it up in less than 6 hours and got $20 out of it. She made more money than her peers because of the Internet. She got enough resources to help herself out of a bad situation because of the Internet. If that isn't a good justification for the Internet, I'm not sure what else could be.

Someone gave her power and resources and she benefited from it. I believe the goal of everything in the Internet age would involve some sort of power balancing, either benefiting the capitalists or the people, sometimes very hard to tell.

Every time someone like Chinju finds their way out through a screen, the original vision proves itself again. The internet remains what it was always meant to be: a way to bypass the gatekeepers who would keep power concentrated, whether they're traditional media barons, financial institutions or simply the cruel geography that traps people in situations that feel permanent as death itself.

The internet is not a place for communication. It's where power gets redistributed, whether its monetary, social or just completely imaginary. We all need some sort of agency or the belief that we can exercise our free will, along with a sense of belonging.

Iwakura, Yasuo: Let me give you one little warning.
Lain Iwakura: Huh?
Iwakura, Yasuo: When it's all said and done, the Wired is just a medium of communication and the transfer of information. You mustn't confuse it with the real world. Do you understand what I'm warning you about?
Lain Iwakura: You're wrong.
Iwakura, Yasuo: Huh?
Lain Iwakura: The border between the two isn't all that clear. I'll be able to enter it soon. In full range. Full motion. I'll translate myself into it.
Lain Iwakura: I can do it. I've modified mine.
Iwakura, Yasuo A Psyche processor, huh? But...
Lain Iwakura: Don't worry. I'm still me.
Iwakura, Yasuo: Sometimes I wonder.

- Serial Experiments Lain, 1998