My question is, what would happen if free and/or open source software had the SOWPL?
For existing projects, that would only be possible if all contributors would agree to re-license their code. And unless there are compelling advantages for every one to do that, this is not going to happen.
So, Google was perhaps slightly terrified from the specter of an Internet without advertising, haha.
Gemini has Encryption, Unicode, MIME, Markup of text pages.
Said that, it is in spirit quite similar to gopher.
I honestly don’t understand how this protocol can protect anything HTTP+HTML wouldn’t. If you build a browser that supports modern web technologies using Gemini, we’ll be back at the same spot. The only thing saving the protocol is its relative obscurity. A decicated and knowledgeable Dev could abuse it any way they like, no?
No. Just as examples:
Oh, and all that makes the “small web” uninteresting for advertising.
Of course, you could publish a blog in web pages which consist of plain ol’ HTML like in 1993. But setting up even a simple HTTP server is a lot of work. Most users won’t turn off JavaScript. And to many people, the modern WWW is a lost cause. And given Firefox’ dependency on Google, this isn’t to get better.
But who actually still writes HTML by hand?
One could also argue that formatting web content in Markdown breaks compatibility and one should rather use HTML for formatting comments, because it is the standard.
The Gemini markup and protocol are designed to be simple, and the markup is designed to be written by hand. This gives you a workflow very similar to a wiki, without any extra infrastructure needed - and this is what makes a decentralized web possible. For normal people, setting up a standard web server for a small blog is too complicated, and costs too much time.
And for protocol conversion, there are gateways, much like you can access FTP or gopher servers in a browser.
still not sold on gemini. the project has sort of a holier-than-thou smell to it, striving for the sort of technological purity that makes it unattractive to use. i would still choose gopher.
Does it annoy you when people try and make stuff that matches their values?
More comfortable with the killings that FB contributed to in Myanmar or in the Philippines? Or attacks on democracy like this one?
The power concentration of the “modern” Internet has consequences - and not good ones.
But me personally, even if it would not matter to me what effects power concentration, targeted advertising, disinformation and so on have, it still would annoy the hell out of me that one cannot open some web sites on a two-year old medium priced smart phone because everything is stuffed to the brim with bloat and tracking.
What called my attention is that assessments of AI are becoming polarized and somewhat a matter of belief.
Some people firmly believe LLMs are helpful. But programming is a logical task and LLMs can’t think - only generate statistically plausible patterns.
The author of the article explains that this creates the same psychological hazards like astrology or tarot cards, psychological traps that have been exploited by psychics for centuries - and even very intelligent people can fall prey to these.
Finally what should cause alarm is that on top that LLMs can’t think, but people behave as if they do, there is no objective scientifically sound examination whether AI models can create any working software faster. Given that there are multi-billion dollar investments, and there was more than enough time to carry through controlled experiments, this should raise loud alarm bells.
I totally love how LWN.net always tries to cover all sides of a discussion in a balanced and positive view. (And I think they are worth every Euro and cent of donations…)