To begin with, we should probably start with what a “wiki” is. Although, to effectively do that I suppose we should also explore the concept of the internet itself, and how information storage on such a format differs from traditional sources, such a books. But if we bring up books, that means we really should take a look at the history of literature too, acknowledging pivotal technological breakthroughs such as the printing press and even writing. Fuck! We’re going to have to go back to the invention of writing itself and how human knowledge even came about in the first place! >:(
Look, there’s obviously wayyyy too much to cover here, so I’ll just try and sum it up with an analogy. For you history buffs, Wikipedia is a lot like the ancient Roman empire. It brings the light to an otherwise dark and barbaric internet (though crushing military might, and replacing other wiki-cultures with its own). Or even better, for those who are more sci-fi nerdy, Wikipedia can be better related to the "Borg", A villainous, cybernetic, interconnected collective, the decisions of which are made by a hive mind of individual contributors. In this sense, Wikipedias drones (like you and me) roam the universe, scouring it for information to assimilate into its dominion.
Our beloved hive mother
Does a tireless, cybernetic juggernaut ceaselessly consuming and compiling all knowledge sound like a super-villain from a dystopian sci-fi fantasy movie? Well, remember the alternative: books. Yes, they’re infinitely more tangible, might even have electronically unavailable features, such as pop-up pictures (Although Wikipedia is probably working on fixing that too), and make great coasters for your coffee table, but they’re soooo 15th century, and, as it turns out, also fairly flammable.Remember the burning of the great library in 48 B.C. ? Well, neither do I, but my point is that with books, one little conflagration can set back humanities collective knowledge by centuries and help cast us into another dark age (and that one even turned out to be the dark age). You and I both know that it’s really only a matter of time before some fascist movement or marauding pack of religious zealots do it again.
What makes me think it couldn’t happen to our beloved hive mother? That’s easy, what most people don’t know is that Wikipedia has a backup server located deep underground with the current shadow government. It takes all sorts of palm, optical, and rectal scans to gain access to that room.
What I'm assuming the main server room looks like.
Seriously, just try to take her down yourself. Go on there and start deleting things like an empty-nester cleaning out an old comic book collection. You won’t last more then 5 minutes before the damage is completely repaired, you’re banned from editing, (unless you know what good "sock puppetry" is) and you find out a year from now you’re getting audited on your taxes. Yea, she’s just that good. It’s much easier to burn a book.So really, as you can see, resistance is futile. Don’t be a hater. Ease back and let your hive mother insert the metaphorical wisdom probe. There. Gooooood. Don’t you feel better now? With each article you read, your soft, squishy, ordinary human knowledge (you know, that boring stuff they taught you in school, like basic math and science) is cut out and replaced by a tiny circuit of cold, mechanical transhuman knowledge. So read up and enjoy. Better yet, sign up on Wikipedia and contribute. The hive could always use a new worker! :D
