2008-03-12 Why We're Powerless To Resist Grazing On Endless Web Data

2008-03-12 \war on the internet http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB120527756506928579-lMyQjAxMDI4MDE1MjIxNzI3Wj.html Why We're Powerless To Resist Grazing On Endless Web Data (alt) by Lee Gomes &ldquo;What is it about a Web site that might make it literally irresistible? Clues are offered by research conducted by Irving Biederman, a neuroscientist at the University of Southern California, who is interested in the evolutionary and biological basis of the human need for information. ... In other words, coming across what Dr. Biederman calls new and richly interpretable information triggers a chemical reaction that makes us feel good, which in turn causes us to seek out even more of it. The reverse is true as well: We want to avoid not getting those hits because, for one, we are so averse to boredom.&rdquo; In other words, the internet is a drug and we're all addicted. Obviously we need another war to stop this insidious threat to our nation's morals. (Is this a trial-balloon to see how well this meme propagates? Or just harmless scientific hypothesizing? See if it pops up again elsewhere, in different forms...)   