I remember extended discussions on Usenet etc about commercialization of the Internet. Not long after Eternal September, as I recall. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Internet of Tim's dreams still exists. Several of them, really. But they're tiny, with relatively few users. What people now call the Internet is a horrorshow of predators and prey. So it goes. Natural selection rules.

And greedy algorithms always fail to reach max optimization.

Balance is the gist of the article.

I can't possibly stay sane _and_ write something if I have to account for every possible reception by every possible buyer of that data. There are too many variables in play, and the data is too easily bought and sold. If we don't regulate, the least scrupulous agent will overtake the competition and it's Thunderdome beyond that.

Do you want to joust for your supper, because I don't.

Perhaps Ethereum is the way to an open internet?

That's one way, sure. But there is no the way, I think.

What we have is just what's won in the market.

On the flip side, I remember arguments twenty years ago about how the owner of a mail server had a fundamental human right to read all the mail that passed through her server. That the processor and hard drive were her property and that any government intervention that stopped that sysadmin from reading, saving, and distributing any of the messages that passed through was the first step to an Orwellian dystopia.

Seems correct, on the assumption that all users of that mail server understood those terms, and that by entering a contract that, for example required anonymous usage, she gave up that right.

i.e. rights can be voluntarily waived by contract, and users must have the choice to choose who handles their mail, or what conditions (contracts) the agents must abide by to be permitted the job.

I concur. Parent's post was interesting, but if we narrow down to datamining and surveillance, it has gotten a whole lot worse to a degree that is beyond appreciable.

Yup. It'd be like someone stealing your letters from the mailbox, copying the contents, and sending that data to the highest bidder.