Gelernter_The End of the Web, Search, and Computer as We Know It | WIRED.pdf

7/24/2019 Gelernter_The End of the Web, Search, and Computer as We Know It | WIRED.pdf

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THE END OF THEWEB, SEARCH,AND COMPUTER

AS WE KNOW IT

PEOPLE ASK WHAT the next

web will be like, but there

wont bea next web.

The space-based web we

currently have will gradually

be replaced by a time-based

worldstream. Its already

happening, and it all began

with thelifestream

, a

phenomenon that I (with Eric

Freeman) predicted in the
http://www.wired.com/author/davidgelernter/


2/15

1990s and shared in the pages

of Wired almost exactly 16

years ago.

This lifestream a

heterogeneous, content-

searchable, real-timemessaging stream arrived

in the form of blog posts and

RSS feeds, Twitter and other

chatstreams, and Facebook

walls and timelines. Its

structure represented a shift

beyond the flatland known

as the desktop (where our

interfaces ignored the

temporal dimension)

towards streams, which flow

and can therefore serve as a

concrete representation of

time.

Its a bit like moving from a

desktop to a magic diary:

Picture a diary whose pages

turn automatically, tracking

your life moment to moment

Until you touch it, and

then, the page-turning stops.

The diary becomes a sort of

reference book: a complete

and searchable guide to your

life. Put it down, and the

pages start turning again.

Today, this diary-like

structure is supplanting thespatial one as the dominant

paradigm of the cybersphere:

The End of the Web, Search, and Computer as We Know It
http://www.wired.com/category/transportation/http://www.wired.com/category/security/http://www.wired.com/category/science/http://www.wired.com/category/gear/http://www.wired.com/category/design/http://www.wired.com/category/culture/http://www.wired.com/category/business/http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.02/fflifestreams.html


3/15

All the information on the

internet will soon be a time-

based structure. In the world

of bits, space-based

structures are static. Time-

based structures are

dynamic, always flowing

like time itself.

The web will be history.

METAPHORS HAVE APROFOUND EFFECTON COMPUTING

Until

now,

the

web

has

been

space-based, like a magazine

stand; we use spatial termssuch as second from the top

on the far left to identify a

DAVID

GELERNTER

LATEST NEWS
http://www.wired.com/2016/02/fcc-wants-make-cord-cutting-painless-possible/http://www.wired.com/2016/02/italians-compare-arrival-starbucks-apocalypse/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gelernter


4/15

particular magazine. A diary,

on the other hand, is time-

based: One dimension of

space has been borrowed to

represent time, so we use

temporal terms like

Thursdays entry or

everything from last spring

to identify entries.

Time as a metaphor may

seem obvious now. Especially

because its natural for us to

see our lives as stories,

organized by time.

Yet it took us more than 20

years in computing to get

here. The field has finally

moved from conserving

resources ingeniously to

squandering them creatively.In this new environment, we

can focus on the best way

instead of the cheapest, most

conservative way for the

internet to work.

And today, the most

important function of theinternet is to deliver the

latestinformation, to tell us

whats happening right now.

Thats why so many time-

based structures have

emerged in the cybersphere:

to satisfy the need for thenewest data. Whether tweet

or timeline, all are time-


5/15

ordered streams designed to

tell you whats new.

Of course, we can still browse

or search into the past: Time

moves forwards and

backwards in thecybersphere. Any

information object can be

added at now, and flows

steadily backwards like a

twig dropped in a brook

into the past. You can drop

files, messages, and

conventional websites (those

will appear as static, single

elements) into the stream,

which acts as a content-

searchable cloud file system.

But what happens if we

merge all those blogs, feeds,chatstreams, and so forth?

By adding together every

timestream on the net

including the private

lifestreams that are just

beginning to emerge into a

single flood of data, we get

the worldstream: a way to

picture the cybersphere as a

whole.

No one can see the whole

worldstream, because much

of the information flowing

through it is private. Buteveryone can see part of it.


6/15

Imagine an old-fashioned

well with a bucket on a rope,

with the bucket plunging

deeper and deeper into the

well. This well of time is

infinitely deep, so the bucket

will plunge forever and the

rope is always as long as it

needs to be, so there will

always be more rope to

unwind. (The infinite

scrolling we now experience

on many timestreamed

websites is merely the ropeunwinding.) The bucket

represents the head or start

of the worldstream, the

oldest data object. The rope-

axle represents now, and the

rope (plunging deeper and

deeper into the past) is thestream itself.

Instead of todays static web,

information will flow

constantly and steadily

through the worldstream

into the past. So what does it

all mean?


7/15

STREAMSCOMPLETELYCHANGE THE

SEARCH GAMETodays operating systems

and browsers and search

models become obsolete,

because people no longer

want to be connected to

computers or sites (they

probably never did).

What people really want is to

tune into information. Since

many millions of separate

lifestreams will exist in the

cybersphere soon, our basic

software will be the stream-browser: like todays

browsers, but designed to

add, subtract, and navigate

streams.

Searching content in a time

stream is a matter of stream

algebra, which is easier than

the algebra of space-based

structures like todays web.

Add two timestreams and get

a third (simply merge the AP

news feed and my friend

Freemans blog streams into

time-order); and contentsearch is a matter of stream

subtraction (simply subtract


8/15

all entries that dont mention

cranberries to yield all the

entries that do). The simple,

practical features of stream

algebra have one huge

benefit: giving us made-to-

order information.

Stream-browsers will help us

tune in to the information we

want by implementing a type

of custom-coffee blender:

Were offered thousands of

different stream flavors,

we choose the flavors we

want, and the blender mixes

our streams to order.

It becomes part of a universal

timestream. Instead of

relying on Amazon the site to

notify me if theres a new

Cynthia Ozick book or new

books on the city of Florence,

I can blend together several

booksellers lifestreams and

then apply my search since

stream algebra allows any

streams to be added (new

and used books) and content

(Florence, Ozick) to be

subtracted.

Every news source is a

lifestream.

Every sites content is

liberated from the confinesof space.


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We shouldnt have to work to

find whats new, yet the way

the web is currently

architected its no different

logically than having to visit

a thousand separate physical

shops. The time-based

worldstream lets us sit back

instead and watch a single,

customized fashion show

across sites.

Worldstreams thus let us

blend and tune our

information any way we like:

My preferred Yale football

news, book updates, andshopping recommendations

are interspersed with all my

email, other messages, posts,

documents, calendar notes,

and so forth. Think these

features already exist in an

app somewhere? They dont.They cant, not until the

millions of different streams

E-commerce changes

drastically.


10/15

each telling their own stories

share the same interface for

the stream browser to draw

on.

Does this sort of precise

control limit theserendipitous nature of the

web? In a way, yes. But its

about time: Bring me what I

want is almost always more

useful than Let me rummage

around and see what I can

find. No matter how fast it

seems, most search is a

waste of time. In a way, we

are using time (i.e., the time-

based structure) to gain

time.

Instead of doing an endless

series of separate searches,we tune the knobs on our

stream-browser to

continuously feed us just the

information we need.

This future doesnt just kill

the operating system,

browser, and search as weknow it it changes the

meaning of computer as we

know it, too. Whether large

or small (e.g., a smartphone),

a computers main function

in the near future will be

tuning in to as a car radiotunes in a broadcast station

the constantly flowing


11/15

global cyberflow. We wont care

much about the computer devices

themselves since well be more focused

on the world of information and our

lives as attached to it.

Finally, the web soon tobecome the cybersphere

will no longer resemble a

chaotic cobweb. Its already

started to happen. Instead,

billions of users will spin their own tales,

which will merge seamlessly into an

ongoing, endless narrative: the earth

telling its own story.

Editor: Sonal Chokshi

@smc90

UPDATE from author(posted

14 February 2013):

Given the various reactions

to this piece, Id like to point

out that while metaphors

help clarify a far-future


12/15

vision, software helps build

towards that vision now.

How should we arrange all

the stuff on the internet?

Conventional solution: use

links to form a web. Usersfollow links from one

information-object to related

ones. Unconventional

alternative: use narrative

streams (individually,

lifestreams; blended

together, the

worldstream). Users follow

time-ordered sequences from

one info-object to the next,

and these streams flow: their

tails lengthen constantly as

new information

arrives. Which suggests an

unconventional GUI, using

virtual 3D: objects flow

towards you out of the future

and away from you into the

past. Weve actually *built* a

first draft of this future:

prototype software that

makes the vision concrete.Go to lifestreams.com to

request an invite. There,

youll see a narrative stream

made of only five sources

(Twitter, Facebook, mail,

RSS, memos). Eventually

there will be billions ofsources: probably 100 or so

right on your control panel
http://lifestreams.com/


13/15

that track people,

institutions, blogs, photo-

streams, businesses. Put

these billions of streams

together and you get the

worldstream.

Its wonderful that

computing today is full of

non-academics; wonderful

that my piece on Wired has

more influence than any

journal article I might write.

But no matter who or where

you are, the same powerful

processes drive this field: We

see big visions, then use

existing technology to build

software that takes little

steps forward. Ive made

correct predictions in my

time (the cloud, Carriero and

Gelernter 85; the web etc.,

Mirror Worlds, 91; blogs,

chat-streams, and others,

Lifestreams: Bigger than

Elvis, 1995) and so I can

tell you that being right is

worth exactly $0.0. But itmoves the field forward; and

its fun!
http://www.wired.com/tag/future-of/http://www.wired.com/tag/the-future-now/http://www.wired.com/tag/social-networking/http://www.wired.com/tag/search/http://www.wired.com/tag/oh-web-we-weave/http://www.wired.com/tag/google/http://www.wired.com/tag/facebook/http://www.wired.com/tag/design/http://www.wired.com/tag/changing-interfaces/http://www.wired.com/tag/business/


14/15

Judge

SaysAppleDoesn'tHave toUnlock

The 2016OscarsActuallyDidn't Suck.

Here's How

What Did a Year in

Space Do to ScottKelly?

WE

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