Yes yes, I think just about everyone nowadays (at least those in the United States, which is all that really matters) knows what the world wide web is and how it will transform our lives in the next few years. No one really understands what will happen, just that it will occur. Hopefully, this change of power from printed matter to hypertext can be orderly and bloodless, but we all know that coup d'etats are never pretty.
Doug Brent's hypertext essay on hypertext is an excellently conceived and executed discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of hypertext. Brent embraces certain aspects of the web but also admits to a number of doubts about the applications of the web on a large-scale basis. I share many of Brent's concerns and agree that hypertext can be harmful if used improperly. There are certain "swing"(i.e., could go either way) areas where we need to be vigilant in our web use:
Closure is what I believe to be the biggest difference between printed matter and most hypertext. It is the nature of linear works, which obviously must have a beginning and an end, to have some sort of resolution. Hypertext, on the other hand, is by its nature almost infinite. Mr Brent's essay contains links which conceivably could keep going and going. Mr. Brent himself acknowledges that one isn't meant to read all the links. The problem with this method is that invariably information will get lost to a person. This may seem unimportant if one is just surfing the net, but in a serious academic work the author wants to get his message across clearly. . Instead, hypertext twists and turns and never truly finishes. The reader is not fully engaged becuase there is no distinct line of thought. Mr. Brent recognizes this and says that he is "not convinced that hypertext is a very good medium for argument as we have come to know it." I concur fully but must also go a step further. I believe that there is a tendency in humans to not stop until they've gone too far. For instance, none of the great tyrants on the 20th century (Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc.) were deposed until they were dead. My point is that internet and hypertext use will continue to grow in both number and importance. We have this great new toy which opens up a slew of possiblites, why not take advantage of it? There is talk that the first thing to go will be the academic journals, which no one reads and are used primarily for research. But it wouldn't surprise me to soon see these journals containing links and other techno stuff. Presently, the journals will become basiclly hypertext. And that would be awlful.