The Off-Line Fallacy

I've been watching the activity in the 'offline' movement. To me it seems to miss the mark.

>What follows is my opinion (and today's opinion at that) - not an insult to anyone's projects or beliefs. I've been known to be wrong, and maybe this is one of those times. I would like to think that voicing an opinion is possible without insulting any of my fellow Geminauts.

Why am I down on it? Mirroring online material locally sounds like you are still online, using a loophole. Is it offline? As Bill Clinton said, it depends on how you define what 'is' is.

I understand just walking away. Getting rid of the computer, and just baking pastries, cooking delicious things, watching TV, going hiking or whatever. But we are talking about cacheing a bunch of Gemini sites once a day, and then reading after unplugging the cable (which changes very little). What's offline about that?

When I was a youngish smoker I made a hard rule for myself - no smoking inside. That certainly kept me from smoking a lot - the hastle of getting out from the apartment into the street, and dealing with being in the street, smoking. But it did not make me into a non-smoker (that came later when I quit, several times).

So what is the attraction of being incommunicado but 'picking up your mail' daily?

Why be offline?

The only appealing thing to me is that by carefuly curating your 'reading list' ahead of time, you will be more organized in your 'offline' reading activity. And by virtue of not having access to unprovided-for links, you can't "go up the ass" as we call it in my family.

I suppose if you want to read Gemini content on an entirely off-line device, such as a book reader or a Commodore VIC-20, you will probably need to do so off-line as well...

I come from the pre-internet generation, and as a kid I dreamed of the unattainable world where everyone had a computer - and later, that everyone had a connected computer. And even later, played a small part in making that happen. Boy, was I ever stupid! Be careful about what you wish for, as they say.

Like many technologies before, we were mislead into thinking 'this one will empower us!'. Radio was going to change everyone's life, making two-way communication possible. But it turned into a box in the living room feeding us crap. Television was going to change our lives, again, connecting people. But it turned into a box in the living room feeding us crap. Computers were going to change our life, etc. More boxes with more crap.

I agree - screw them.

Be online instead. But on your own terms.

So we have this amazing hardware, and the wiring (or wireless) to connect us to pretty much any other living person.

I've been online more than ever since I decided to deep-dive into Gemini, tildes and working via ssh. Not on the Web - but online. And it feels terrific - it's the same feeling of freedom as quitting the big web, social media, removing phone apps, ignoring the news, and generally minimizing the mainstream idiocy.

For the first time I am deeply grateful for the net.

Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater.

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