I share Brad’s disdain for the “Web 3.0” label. And I think that what he is calling “Intelligence Amplification” is what I’ve been calling the “Digital Cortex” — to extend the capabilities of our brain, trying to be more intelligent, trying to better process the information which streams into us from our new digital environment. (Oh, and trying to figure out why girls are so obnoxious.)
His post brings to mind 2 items from yesteryear:
First, Richard Cowin saying last year “‘Web 2.0’ is so Web 1.0“. One of the big points of Web 2.0 was that version numbers are so 90’s. Tell me, what version of Google do you use?
However, Richard goes on to say “I predict that we will not have a web 3.0. (Unless, of course their is money to be made).” Looks like the “unless” was the important part of that prediction!
Secondly, the idea of “Web 3.0” being another attempt at the semantic web recalls Cori Doctorow’s excellent essay from 2001 Metacrap : Seven reasons why metadata will always suck.
“A world of exhaustive, reliable metadata would be a utopia. It’s also a pipe-dream, founded on self-delusion, nerd hubris and hysterically inflated market opportunities.”
The solution is to be like the brain, which specializes in sifting through the messy data that we get from the outside world.