> Who dreamed of a highbrow Internet, and how did they get so out of touch with humanity in the first place?

The people who invented it, who wanted a way for scientists to access mainframes using a single network instead of having to use a different network for each different big computer.

Oh, you mean scientists can still do things like that, and that cat GIFs don't prevent it? Shut your mouth!

> Oh, you mean scientists can still do things like that, and that cat GIFs don't prevent it? Shut your mouth!

If, as you indicate yourself, the Internet could still be used for science whether or not it also delivers videos of cats, then why would scientists have fooled themselves into thinking the Internet must be 'highbrow'?

Did they use a 'highbrow' telephone system before that? Did they use 'highbrow paper' while the hoi polloi read their garbage dailies? No, the Internet is a tool just as paper and telecommunications were.

What people do with that tool is up to them, but the tool itself won't raise the nature of discourse just by being, anymore than a really nice socket wrench will magically make the beams and struts of a building stronger.

I'm glad the title was revised again because the previous version was practically a contradiction in terms.

You're commenting on the title ("The dream of the highbrow internet is dead", which is the first sentence of the article), but we only changed it to that because the top title was so bad. The article itself is more interesting than either.

Can anyone suggest a more representative title? Edit: I've taken a crack at it, but we'd be happy to replace it with something better.