Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

Katz has a pretty long essay on slashdot about the influence of computers on individualism and society as a whole (I would have used something other than "long" to describe it, but thats what I was left with, it's long, it isn't particularly great or enlightening, and it isnt bad bad either.)

Its a follow up to an earlier essay on Wired about the same thing.

The theme was originally that the Internet would revolutionize our thoughts and society in a manner that had not been seen since Thomas Paine (on Paine I agree with Katz, Paine was a great writer and statesman, one of the best citizens and minds our country has ever known in my opinion, and yet he is generally reviled because he had the balls to question and then denounce Christianity.) The conclusion of the new look at the changes the Internet has accomplished over the last 6 or so years is that, some stuff has changed, some hasnt. Society is certainly different because of the Internet, but not exactly in the ways that were predicted.

For more info, see the link. -->   The age of Paine revisited: Jon Katz, slashdot